Head and Heart: American Christianities
by Garry Wills
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Book Summary Information
Author: Garry WillsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-04
ISBN: 1594201463
Number of pages: 640
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Book Reviews of Head and Heart: American Christianities
Book Review: Garry Wills' Important, Often Insightful, Religious History of the United States of America
Summary: 5 Stars
Without question one of the most important books published this year, "Head and Heart: American Christianities" is an important, often insightful, history on the importance of religion to American life. Garry Wills has written a mesmerizing account of that history, and one that deserves as wide a readership as possible. For some it may be infuriating, simply because he reminds us - at a time in which we need such reminding - that the United States of America was founded, not as a Christian nation, but instead, as a democratic republic by Enlightenment Deists such as Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Washington, who, while recognizing the importance of religion in American life, also realized the importance of a strict separation between church and state; a realization borne out of decades-old religious intolerance and persecution here, in the New World, itself. Indeed, Wills argues persuasively that this strict separation fostered the growth of devout religious belief in the United States during the first half of the 19th Century, by allowing religious liberty to thrive unfettered in a "free market" atmosphere of ideas. He also contends that American religious life has been dominated by two "poles", by "head and heart", or rather, by reason and emotion, throughout its history, and has seen its greatest success when it has used both to their fullest possible extent (For example, in the case of the Abolitionist crusade against slavery, which combined both Fundamentalist Protestant Christian religious fervor with a more rational religious outlook from the likes of Unitarians and Quakers.).
Wills demonstrates that the rise of religious tolerance in colonial America was not a foregone conclusion that we can gleam from our history textbooks. Instead, he demonstrates that Puritan America was a despotic theocracy in its infancy, relying upon expulsion and execution, to rid Massachusetts of religious dissenters, well into the 17th Century. Even Roger Williams is shown in a completely different, quite unflattering, light, as demonstrated by his own religious intolerance towards Quakers. Ironically, true religious intolerance didn't emerge in British North America unless it was imposed directly from London. The first colony that truly offered religious tolerance wasn't established for decades, until the formation of Pennsylvania by William Penn and his fellow Quakers. Ironically, by the mid 18th Century, religious life in the United States would be at its lowest ebb, despite a "Great Awakening" of the 1740s; this was due to the widespread embrace of the ideals of the Scottish Enlightenment by those who would become our Founding Fathers; men like Franklin, Adams, Washington, Jefferson and Madison (The only truly tangible "fruits" of that "Great Awakening" would be the establishment of Princeton, Columbia and Brown universities, among others, by those ministers who had been positively influenced by it.).
Wills concludes the book with a searing indictment of the current Bush administration's reliance upon "faith-based government". He delves into such issues as the Terri Schiavo case and, not surprisingly, the longstanding stem cell debate, which now, ironically, may be resolved due to some unexpected developments in medical research reported recently. He also briefly touches upon the so-called "creation vs. evolution" debate, but, to my amazement, does not explore at all, the important role which the Seattle, Washington-based Discovery Institute - Intelligent Design's principal "think tank" - has undertaken in trying to establish a more "Christian" America. These issues are explored after an extensive, in-depth look at Fundamentalist Protestant Christanity's engagement with American public life since the 1890s, well before the celebrated Scopes Trial of 1925. If nothing else, Wills' substantial examination of this engagement demonstrates the ongoing need for both a strict separation of church and state and for a religious course of action which emphasizes both the "head and heart" of "American Christianities".
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