Religion and the American Founding

1. Religion and the American Founding • Puritanism in Colonial America • “To express and pursue the Protestant Reformation” in America. 1. Earliest Puritan immigrants (e.g., Massachusetts Bay Colony; Plymouth’s Pilgrims) left Europe primarily to escape persecution and worship, as a group, according to their religious convictions but also to expand the Kingdom of Christ. They brought with them, the Genevan Study Bible and Genevan Calvinism. 2. Key figure: Cotton Mather. Mather (1663-1729), churchmen, first historian, and political leader, argued that the consensus in New England was that the mission of colonization was to establish a “Christian Commonwealth” just as Calvin had done in Geneva. • How? • Establish colonies based upon divine covenant, which limited government, specified individual freedoms as found in the OT where all other laws were grounded. Colonial Charters (p. 317 Hall; Mayflower Compact). These Charters, based primarily on covenant theology (read Lutz comparing church/gov’t covenant), contained many innovative constitutional ideas (trial by jury of peers, governor’s “council,” declaration of rights, elementary voting for all males, etc.).

2. Establish Reformed institutions of Higher Education which mirrored Calvin’s Academy in Geneva. John Harvard said the purpose of Harvard was to teach students to “know God and Jesus Christ.” Harvard was described as an “incubator of Puritanism. Development common theological base - When the Westminster Assembly drafted its confession of faith in England (1647), virtually all Puritans in NE (churches, governments, colleges) adopted it as well. Indeed, Mather’s historical accounts of New England describes the WCF “as the faith of NE.” • Who? Two important immigration waves • Congregationalists first (1600s; originally connected to Anglican Church, but who sought local church autonomy). Pushed gov’t by covenant. • Scots-Irish Presbyterians second (1700-1776). Came to escape Anglican persecution and imposition in the UK. This group eventually became the only Christian group to unanimously and enthusiastically embrace the American Revolution. Why? It was in Scotland where Reformation thought was strongest (Buchanan and John Knox); where Presbyterian political theology (i.e.,”two-power” theory) strongly endorsed and resulted armed resistance against British Crown; where the WCF was officially adopted. Pushed resistance to British rule.

3. 22% of congregations in 1776 were Congregational; 17% were Presbyterian; most of the rest were some other kind of Reformed church with only 2% Catholic and 2% Methodist. So, 2/3s were tied to the Genevan Reformation (though many Anglicans were reformed in theology). II. American Revolution – Two religious motivations • First, support for the American Revolution came from “the school of Calvin” and Reformed ministers, especially resistance and republican oriented Presbyterians. • Blamed in England: Read from Seabrook’s Presbyterian Rebellion. Why? • Ecclesiastical fight: saw the AR as another chapter in the Scottish-Presbyterian and Puritan war against Anglicanism (church ruled by King) and Erastianism (church ruled by Parliament) as well as revenge for Huguenot persecution in France (800k French Protestants massacred); Political fight: republican in church government – republican in civil government. Basically, AR was seen as a continuation of the Reformation.

4. 3. Presbyterian Princeton the “seminary of sedition” - More than any other institution, Princeton became a breeding-ground for Reformation theology in general (until mid 20th century) and reformation political theology (advocating resistance against tyrants) in particular. 9 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention graduate from there and 87 of 243 founding fathers. John Witherspoon (1723-1794) president of Princeton in 1768 (Jonathan Edwards had also been president a decade before) had personally instructed many of the most radical revolutionaries (including James Madison - “If men were angels”). Arguably the most read and popular preacher at this time. Witherspoon’s students: 6 in CC; 12 governors; 30 judges; 21 senators; 39 HR. “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson” – Horace Warpole (Prime Minister in Parliament). 4. More than half of all soldiers/officers in AR were Presbyterians. • The denomination was the only institution in America organized and propagating republicanism (read from Seabrook). Prior to the Continental Congress, the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church was the only body representing the 13 colonies united the country before there was a congress. B. Baptizing Enlightenment Thought – many of the founding fathers derived their some of their motivation for rebellion from ET

5. Jefferson and Thomas Paine can hardly be described as even religious, much less Christian or Reformed. The ET’s secularized view of natural rights (freedom, life, property) & self-government and anti-authoritarianism and establishment tone were sufficiently persuasive to many of the younger less-religious founders. But even among the orthodox Protestants, the great stress on individual rights and liberty and self-evident truths found in ET and Humanist theory was rapidly being adapted to fit Protestantism in America to produce a new individualized distinctly American brand of orthodox Protestantism, which is dominant to this day. How? • Religious Revivalism: Populism and Rationalism in America (Embracing of Dualism in Protestant America) A. Protestantism in 1776 – Emergence of Populists and Rationalists • Populists: 1st Great Awakening occurred amidst dying churches. The GA revivals erupt in the 1740s; downplay religious importance of doctrine, intellectualism, and community; stressed individual conversion, experience, and holiness regardless of denomination. Indeed, revivalist preachers urged hearers to leave churches where the awakenings were criticized as too emotional & irrational. Salvation was not thought to be a process connected to church life, but a personal encounter with God outside of church. Appealed to common folk and helped to grow the Baptists, newly formed Methodists and other denominations that stressed an individualized populist simple faith and opposed “elitism” of established churches.

6. Indeed, the Methodists, founded primarily by John Wesley, popularized for the first time Arminianism, which would soon overtake nearly all Protestants within a 100 years or so. • Growth in adherence did not take place among the established churches, but among the “upstart” groups (Baptists and Methodists). Note: What does this brand sound like in the Enlightenment Thought? An atomistic voluntaristic view of ecclesiology mirrors that of secular political philosophy. The covenantal view, remember, conceived of society as communal and organic. Basically, the populist wing embraced the subject of the Enlightenment, autonomous independent individual. • Also, stress on individual, experiential, non-doctrinal or confessional, consumerist faith coupled with the popular view of pastors as inspirational celebrities (George Whitefield, nation’s first national celebrity) rather than theological instructors led to an eventual neglect of the “evangelical mind” among most evangelicals. Religion is a personal and heart thing only; dualism in popular religion. • Rationalists: However, established/confessional churches responded to the revivals by stressing a rational faith (they were embarrassed) to the point that philosophical rationalism/empiricism among most of these denominations eventually replaced revelation altogether as authoritative well in to the 19th century.

7. Started out as a mild concession to challenge of secular Enlightenment (whatever stands test of reason is true; but they believed as Locke did, that Christianity could be proven true by reason/evidence alone). This group came to embrace the methodology of the Enlightenment; scientific investigation using reason and observation alone. • Ironically, the form of enlightenment thought embraced by most established church ministers and other intellectuals in America (most founding fathers) was Common Sense Realism, from Thomas Reid in Scotland (referred to as ground of “American Enlightenment”). Reid argued there are truths which are “self-evident” (in response to Hume’s skepticism). They do not need to be defended or explained because they are common sense. No one seriously disputes them, except for bizarre idle philosophers who have nothing better to do. John Witherspoon embraced this view and taught it at Princeton. All important question: What truths are “self-evident”?

8. Answer from Reid, Witherspoon, and the growing # of “Rational” ministers: Life, liberty, property, self-government, basic teachings of Christianity (God’s existence, His goodness, His creation). These lay the foundation of knowledge; beyond this knowledge is acquired through the Baconian method of modern science (induction). This seemed to many evangelical intellectuals in the late18th and 19th century to be an unbeatable & satisfactory answer to the more radical/atheistic of Enlightenment thinkers (like Rousseau). This entire system, as all systems were from the Enlightenment, was based on Induction, not Deduction (don’t start with axioms or philosophical systems or set of assumptions and then investigate the world; start with observations and derive a general theory). Assumes we can all agree on a common standard, facts, or method of truth discovery (neutrality). So, revelation becomes subordinate to reason; reason is not subordinate to revelation. • Note: Most Protestant thinkers/scholars/ministers from the rationalist camp pursued this rigorously and ended up at theological liberalism, especially after rise of Darwinism and German Higher Criticism (e.g., birth of Unitarianism which denies the Trinity; why?). Some did not (Princeton; though discuss Darwin here). But rank & file evangelicals as a whole embraced this approach and assumed it would vindicate or was vindicating the truth of Christianity. The “scientific approach” was considered solely reliable and applied to BOTH science and theology. One does not need history/creeds/confessions if Biblical texts, like scientific data, “speak for themselves.”

9. Who needs insight of Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Edwards; Baconian method will reveal truth. Result: more theological shallowness. Approach to Biblical text as isolated individuals, without regard to insight from Christian historical theology. • Since the new accepted method of truth discovery was Baconian induction, “an effort was made to construct ethics as Bacon had defined the doing of science.” That is, it was assumed that a “moral sense” was knowable apart from divine revelation. Self-evident Natural Law, apprehended through reason alone, became the basis of ethics for virtually all scholars (evangelicals too). • Not hard to see the next step: If “rational” morality could be perfectly understood as laws of nature (a purely naturalistic perspective), then Christianity loses its relevance in public and intellectual spheres of society. It’s unneeded. Dualism in Rational Religion. Scaeffer argued that if values, moral laws, etc. can be inductively known through science, experience, reason, then the lower story will “eat up” the upper story. “Our sense of right and wrong is merely a datum of experience – which must be explained and accounted for by an overarching worldview. And if the Christian worldview is ruled out as an explanatory framework, the [non-]Christian worldviews will rush in to fill the vacuum.” Evangelical scholars in the lat 18th and 19th centuries assumed that methodological naturalism and moral science were neutral approaches to truth discovery; findings would prove to be consistent with Christianity.

10. This opened the door to philosophical naturalism (nature is all that exists). It was not long before scholars embracing this philosophy walked right through the door that had been opened for them” largely by evangelical scholars. – Nancy Pearcey. Result: Secularization of the American university system (Psychology replaces Moral Philosophy; Theology pushed into separate department; Religion largely replaced by Humanities as study of morality, meaning, etc.). “The naturalistic definition of science was transformed from a methodology into a dominant academic worldview.” – Marsden. To evangelicals it seemed they were only agreeing to use the same methods of analysis, but what really happened was they were agreeing to the basic presuppositions or worldview assumptions of philosophical naturalism. • Replacing Classical Republicanism with Classical Liberalism What you just saw played out in the religious communities of America resulted in a virtual break with Classical Republicanism in politics. • Classical Republicanism in America (from Puritans to Whigs to Federalists): Social institutions like family, church, and state were thought of as organic wholes and units of society, each with a common good transcending individuals’ interests. Words meant different things: • Virtue was primarily public, not private (fulfilling responsibilities already laid out for individuals based on civic-obligations; husband-wife, parent-child, pastor-laity, magistrate-citizen).

11. Liberty was publicly defined as well (“federal liberty” is right of each social institution to govern itself and right of individuals to do that which is good or which fulfills covenant obligations). Distinguished between Natural Liberty and Federal Liberty. There is a Liberty of corrupt Nature, which is affected both by Men and Beasts, to do what they list; and this Liberty is inconsistent with Authority, impatient of all Restraint; by this Liberty, we are all the worse. 'Tis the Grand Enemy of Truth and Peace, and all the Ordinances of God are bent against it. But there is a Civil, a Moral, a Federal Liberty, which is the proper End and Object of Authority; it is a Liberty for that only which is just and good; for this Liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very Lives; and whatsoever Crosses it, is not Authority but a Distemper thereof. John Winthrop  • Leadership (whatever kind) was an “office” with divine sanction; called to be “disinterested” sacrificing personal interests and ambition for sake of common good of group. Growing criticism, in light of Great Awakening here and Enlightenment thought abroad, was the this was too elitist, authoritarian, and heirarchical (common people considered too self-interested, uneducated, to be trusted with decision-making).

12. Classical Liberalism – based on social contract theory; regarded civil society as voluntary gathering of autonomous individuals. Not an organic whole. No common group good beyond the purposes interests of individual members. No need for a “leadership class” charged with protecting common good. Denies that government is to be place of public virtue; state simply a product of individual choices; worth was functional only (facilitate individual interests). Individuals are basic unit of society (atomistic). By time of American Revolution and certainly the Constitutional Convention, Protestants were split on this issue (supporters and opponents of GA) and the Framers were also divided. But classical liberalism was gaining ground rapidly. • Explaining disestablishment of Christian denominations. • Establishment - How? Meant tithes collected by state, set parish boundaries, pay clergy salaries, hire/fire them, suppress dissent. • Establishment - Who? Congregationalists (NE), Episcopalians (NY, VA, MD, NC, SC, GA). • Disestablish. Why? • Thought to be impractical and too costly ($ and security). Not really pursuing a secular state, but seen as a means of survival in an age of rapidly growing religious pluralism.

13. 2. Thought to be unnecessary – religion would and could thrive without it (Baptists & Methodists). Monopolizing religion led to religious indifference (low attendance), lazy clergy (paid by state). • Concern for religious minorities, especially Christian ones (Sunday mail; VA Baptists (letter); John Jay prayer in Congress). • Growing religious toleration in Protestant Theology. Evidence: WCF; Right of Religious Conscious first and only individual right listed in state constitutions in late 18th century; Great Awakening, as first national event, fostered greater toleration and appreciation for religious pluralism. V. Religion and the Framers (Philadelphia, 1787). 55 delegates. • How religious were they? Depends on measure of religiosity. If religious means orthodox adherence, not very (a great # were unorthodox or even deist after being schooled in Enlightenment thought). If religious means ritualistic, very religious (practically all attended church regularly, many were known as men of prayer, expressed strong support for religious vitality, etc.). In public pronouncements, used same language that would have been seen understood in light of evangelical religion (king is corrupt; wants to deprive us of right to self-government, natural rights, etc.). Also, kept unorthodox religious views private. • Did they see religion having a necessary and public role in society? Three groups (Paine is a loner): • Proliferation of True religion is necessary for survival of republic (promotes virtue). State has interest in promoting it.

14. 2. Religion is necessary for survival of republic (promotes virtue). State has an interest in promoting it. “What this country needs is religion and I don't care which one.” Eisenhower • Religion is not essential (legal/institutional design is primary). State support for it undermines both church and state. Read letter from Franklin to Paine. • Federalism: To some, federalism was a great solution. Let state governments continue, if they want, to promote the traditional Protestant sense of communal, covenantal, classical republican politics while pursuing a minimalist classical liberal approach nationally. Established churches continued on until the early 19th century. State constitutions continued to have covenant characteristics as well (religious tests, ban on atheist and Catholic office holders).