Americans love God. We stamp God on our money, our bumper stickers, and our bodies. With a church on nearly every street, it's hard to deny our country's deep connection with the divine. Yet culture critic Matthew Paul Turner says that God didn't just change America -- America changed God. As a result, do we even recognize the "real" God? Whip-smart and provocative, Turner explores the United States' vast influence on God, told through an amazing true history of faith, politics, and evangelical pyrotechnics. From Puritans to Pentecostals, from progressives to mega-pastors, Turner examines how American history and ideals transformed our perception of God. Fearless and funny, this is the definitive guide to the American experience of the Almighty -- a story so bizarre, incredible, and entertaining that it could only be made in the U.S.A. Ultimately, Turner dares to ask: Does God control the future of America -- or is it the other way around? - Jacket flap.
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Short Review: A romp through American religious history and the ways innovation in the message or understanding of God has changed the way we modern American Christians see God. I think the strength (and some of my frustration) of the book is the way Turner is intentionally conflating God (as a deity) and our understanding of God. Of course he is right that when we understand God differently that makes a difference. But as I think he would clearly said if pressed, that God (as God) is unchanged. Which is where Turner really starts (with a story about a friend of his talking about how much America has done for God over its history.) Turner is a gadfly, a necessary voice, but not alway one that is easy to hear. Still this is the best of his books that I have read.
Click through for about 1000 word review. http://bookwi.se/our-great-big-american-god/
