Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

The founding fathers and the place of religion in America

Front Cover
2 Reviews
Princeton University Press, 2003 - History - 328 pages

How did the United States, founded as colonies with explicitly religious aspirations, come to be the first modern state whose commitment to the separation of church and state was reflected in its constitution? Frank Lambert explains why this happened, offering in the process a synthesis of American history from the first British arrivals through Thomas Jefferson's controversial presidency.

Lambert recognizes that two sets of spiritual fathers defined the place of religion in early America: what Lambert calls the Planting Fathers, who brought Old World ideas and dreams of building a "City upon a Hill," and the Founding Fathers, who determined the constitutional arrangement of religion in the new republic. While the former proselytized the "one true faith," the latter emphasized religious freedom over religious purity.

Lambert locates this shift in the mid-eighteenth century. In the wake of evangelical revival, immigration by new dissenters, and population expansion, there emerged a marketplace of religion characterized by sectarian competition, pluralism, and widened choice. During the American Revolution, dissenters found sympathetic lawmakers who favored separating church and state, and the free marketplace of religion gained legal status as the Founders began the daunting task of uniting thirteen disparate colonies. To avoid discord in an increasingly pluralistic and contentious society, the Founders left the religious arena free of government intervention save for the guarantee of free exercise for all. Religious people and groups were also free to seek political influence, ensuring that religion's place in America would always be a contested one, but never a state-regulated one.

An engaging and highly readable account of early American history, this book shows how religious freedom came to be recognized not merely as toleration of dissent but as a natural right to be enjoyed by all Americans.

  

What people are saying - Write a review

Review: The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America

User Review  - Jared - Goodreads

Excellent work, with one exception...Dr. Lambert does not provide adequate attention to the impact of theological unitarianism in his review of the faiths of the main Founding Fathers. How can you ... Read full review

Review: The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America

User Review  - Earon S. - Goodreads

This book presents the historical information on the faiths of our our Founding Fathers. Rather than being Christian fundamentalists, they were mostly intellectuals trying to bring this nation beyond ... Read full review

Related books

Religion in American Politics: A Short History
Religion in American Politics: A Short History
Frank Lambert
Limited preview - 2010
The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World
The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World
Frank Lambert
Limited preview - 2007
"Pedlar in divinity": George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737 ...
"Pedlar in divinity": George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737 ...
Frank Lambert
Limited preview - 1994
All related books »

Contents

III
21
IV
23
V
31
VI
39
VII
46
X
48
XI
58
XII
67
XXVII
167
XXVIII
173
XXIX
180
XXX
182
XXXI
187
XXXII
194
XXXIII
207
XXXIV
210

XIII
73
XIV
76
XV
82
XVI
89
XVII
100
XVIII
102
XIX
109
XX
114
XXI
127
XXII
129
XXIII
136
XXIV
145
XXV
159
XXVI
162
XXXV
219
XXXVI
225
XXXVII
236
XXXIX
241
XL
246
XLI
253
XLII
265
XLIII
268
XLIV
276
XLV
280
XLVI
288
XLVII
297
XLVIII
323
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

American Revolution Anglicans argued authority Backus Baptists believed Bible bishop Boston Catholics century Christ Church of England church-state relations Cited civil claimed clergy colonies Congregational churches Connecticut Constitution Cotton Mather court covenant debate declared Deism delegates Dissenters divine doctrine ecclesiastical English established church evangelical faith federal Federalists Founders Founding Fathers Franklin gious God's gospel Holy human Ibid ideas individuals insisted Isaac Backus itinerants James Madison John Adams John Leland king laws liberty of conscience magistrates Massachusetts Bay matters ment ministers moral nature official parish Penn Pennsylvania persecution place of religion planters political practice preachers preaching Presbyterians Protestant Puritan Fathers Puritans Quakers radical Radical Whig reli religious freedom religious liberty religious market religious marketplace religious test religious uniformity Scripture sectarian sects secular separation of church sermon society spiritual Thomas Jefferson tion toleration truth Virginia voters Whig William Winthrop women worship wrote York

References to this book

From other books

God and country: America in red and blue
God and country: America in red and blue
Sheila Suess Kennedy
Limited preview - 2007
Church and State in America: The First Two Centuries
Church and State in America: The First Two Centuries
James H. Hutson
No preview available - 2008
All Book Search results »

From Google Scholar

An Examination Of Religious Plurality In America
Matthew H TRUMBULL
Beyond The Scientology Case
TOWARDS A BETTER DEFINITION OF WHAT - 2006
Between Religious Marketplace and Spiritual Wasteland: Religion in ...
Carla Gardina Pestana - 2004 - History Compass
Birth of a Protestant Nation
Catholic Canadians, Religious Pluralism - early american literature
All Scholar search results »

References from web pages

JSTOR: The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. By Frank Lambert. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0275-1275(200323)23%3A3%3C480%3ATFFATP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

Christian Century: The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion ...
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. By Frank Lambert. Princeton University Press, 328 pp., $29.9,5. ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_m1058/ is_4_121/ ai_113648965/ print

Sample Chapter for Lambert, F.: The Founding Fathers and the Place ...
Sample Chapter for The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America by Lambert, F., published by Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/ chapters/ i7500.html

Journal of Religion and Society
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. 328. $34.95 (Cloth). ...
moses.creighton.edu/ JRS/ 2006/ 2006-r2.html

The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Journal article by H. Jefferson Powell; The Historian, Vol. 66, 2004 ...
www.questia.com/ PM.qst?a=o& se=gglsc& d=5010848181

The founding fathers and the place of religion in America / Frank ...
The founding fathers and the place of religion in America / Frank Lambert. Author: Lambert, Frank, 1943-. Publisher: Princeton, nj : Princeton University ...
www.chipublib.org/ search/ details/ cn/ 1839911

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.4 | The ...
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. By Frank Lambert. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. xiv, 328 pp. ...
www.historycooperative.org/ journals/ jah/ 90.4/ br_12.html

Chicago Journals - The Journal of Religion
The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America . Princeton, nj: Princeton University Press, 2003. xii+328 pp. $29.95 (cloth). Derek H. Davis, ...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/ cgi-bin/ resolve?id=doi:10.1086/ 421792

Jefferson’s Correspondence with the Danbury Baptists
Appendix. Pluralism Lesson Plan: Exercise 1, Assignment. Jefferson’s correspondence with the Danbury Baptists, as narrated by Frank Lambert in. The Founding ...
www.firstfreedom.org/ education/ images/ PluralismAppend.pdf

God and Country -- Religion and Politics in the US
Frank Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America, Princeton University Press, 2003. General Information about the Presidents and ...
www.geocities.com/ peterroberts.geo/ Relig-Politics/ Intro.html

About the author (2003)

Frank Lambert is professor of history at Purdue University. His books include "The Barbary Wars," a "New York Times" Editors' Choice; "The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America"; and "Inventing the "Great Awakening.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The founding fathers and the place of religion in America
TitleThe founding fathers and the place of religion in America
AuthorFrank Lambert
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2003
ISBN0691088292, 9780691088297
Length328 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan