Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 46:2 (Fall 1984)
Article: Continuing the Search for Christian America
Author: Samuel T. Logan, Jr.

WTJ 46:2 (Fall 1984) p. 370

Continuing the Search for Christian America*

Samuel T. Logan, Jr.

* Mark A Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, and George M. Marsden, The Search for Christian America (West Chester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1983).

A new salvo has now been fired in the increasingly sophisticated battle over the question of America’s religious origins. Was early America Christian? What exactly is meant by “early America”? Does it make any difference for present-day Christian ethical action whether the nation was originally Christian or not? These are some of the questions raised, for example, by Francis Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto, by numerous magazine and journal articles on the subject, and now by Noll, Hatch, and Marsden in The Search for Christian America.

Schaeffer, in A Christian Manifesto, argued that a “Christian consensus” prevailed in this country during the last three decades of the eighteenth century and that this consensus gave early America its specific identity, an identity which is being drastically challenged today by relativism and secular humanism.1 Schaeffer believes that a correct recognition of America’s spiritual heritage is necessary in order to lay the foundation for proper Christian response to the secular challenge today.

Noll, Hatch, and Marsden believe as fervently as Schaeffer that secular humanism must be combatted from a thoroughly biblical position, but they reject most vigorously any attempt to label early America “Christian,” and they argue just as strongly that such an identification would weaken, not strengthen, current Christian activity.

The authors announce their purpose very clearly at the beginning of their book.

The argument of this book can be stated quite simply.
1) We feel that a careful study of the facts of history shows that early America does not deserve to be considered uniquely, distinctly, or even

WTJ 46:2 (Fall 1984) p. 371

predominantly Christian, if we mean by the word “Christian” a state of society reflecting the ideals presented in Scripture. There is no lost golden age to which American Christians may return. In addition, a careful study of history will also show that evangelicals themselves were often partly to blame for the spread of secularism in contemporary American life. 2) We feel also that careful examination of Christian teaching on government, the state, and the nature of culture shows that the idea of a “Christian nation” is a very ambiguous concept which is usually harmful to effective Christian action in society, [p. 17]

In the Introduction of the volume, the authors make it ver...