American Gospel

God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

By: Jon Meacham

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th. And yet, first and foremost, America is a nation founded upon the principles of liberty and freedom.

Every American is free to exercise his own faith or no faith at all. And so a balance is struck, between public religion and private religion; and religious belief is distinct from morality. As Meacham explains, the well-known "wall" between church and state has always separated private religion from the business of the state, yet religious belief is part of the basic foundation of government. Brilliantly articulating an argument that links the Founding Fathers to an insightful contemporary point of view, American Gospel renews our understanding of history, and what public religion has meant in America, so that we can move beyond today's religious and political extremism toward a truer understanding of the place of faith in American society.

©2006 Jon Meacham (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book.” (David McCullough, author of 1776)

“Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life.” (Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation)

“An absorbing narrative full of vivid characters and fresh thinking, American Gospel tells how the Founding Fathers - and their successors - struggled with their own religious and political convictions to work out the basic structure for freedom of religion. For me this book was nonstop reading.” (Elaine Pagels, professor of religion, Princeton University, author of Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Thoughtful and superbly written, but too delicate for the foolish.

A clear, thoughtful, nuanced, well researched, and (as usual, for Mecham), superbly written account of the history of public religion in the United States. Well worth reading for any literate and moderately educated American. If, however - like many of the reviewers here – you bring to the fray a silly preconception based on your own dogmatic view of faith, don’t waste your money. The topic is too complex for you.

As usual, Grover Gardner’s narration is excellent.

Worth Hearing!

Again, Americans should be reminded of the beginning and the historical impact of that beginning. The Founders intention and the nation's process. Consideration and reflection.

In God We Trust

American Gospel is a wonderful book. Jon Meacham takes us through each era of American History and shows how our relationship with religion as a society has evolved over time. Most notably, he explains how the founding fathers foresaw their impact on our society, in respects to religion, and how the blueprint should be to ensure complete freedom for all regardless of personal belief.

A Must Read for People of Whatever Faith

Right upfront let me say that I am a fan of John Meacham. He has a dynamic writing style that draws me into whatever story he’s telling.

Also, I am a United Methodist Pastor— a mainline Christian denomination. Mainline churches like mine are populated by people on both sides of the theological and political spectrum. So, I have heard all my ministerial life the extremes of the left and the right when it comes to either attempting to force a Christian faith perspective on society, or do everything one can to exclude Christian influence on society.

Meacham‘s book gives a fantastic overview of the role religion – – particularly Christian faith – – has played in the American story. He also gives a fair and intriguing account of the role of American civil religion in shaping the American experiment.

I always appreciate it when an author addresses a topic in a fully researched, non-sectarian and non-partisan way. That’s what John Meacham has done in this book.

seems very biased

The author seems to write with an end in mind, rather than letting the stories tell how it really was. I am neither liberal nor conservative, but this book seems to come off very strong in the message of dividing church and state, and also ensuring tolerance. In order to make his point, he portrays a history where almost no one agreed with each other in their view of God nor religion. Therefore, everyone should keep religion private and tolerate everyone. I personally do believe that religion should not be mandated in schools, but I think there should be a healthy (and yes, optional) acknowledgement that reverence to God is part of our history.

The author seems to go almost too much overboard in portraying a one-sided view of how history was almost disastrous because of various historical figures and their public belief in God. I am no history buff, but I can tell a slanted story when I hear one...

Otherwise, the book was decent and interesting. However, the stories don't "flow" so well.

Though Provoking

The issue of religion, both public and private, has had a place in the United States ever since our founding. Jon Meacham brings a historian's eye to this interesting and complex issue. The men who founded the United States came from diverse backgrounds, yet they had many things in common. Meacham shows that the ethics and morality of the Bible have informed and defined the history of the United States from the beginning.

Religion informs the way that we discuss issues and forms our public lives as well as our private lives. Jefferson used religious imagery when writing the Declaration of Independence. Abolitionists used the gospel to fight slavery. The issue was not couched in economic terms, but in the terms of a system that was evil in its nature. Franklin Roosevelt believed that the New Deal was a Christian imperative to help the poor. Martin Luther King, Jr. couched the Civil Rights movement not as a political movement, but as a spiritual movement.

This is an issue that still divides our nation today. This book will help to set the stage for understanding the complex ways that religion in general and the Christian religion in particular still defines how we talk about political and social issues. Both liberals and conservatives will take issue with different points of this book, but maybe that's a good thing. Whether or not you agree with every point you will find a lot to think about with this book.

Well

done! Excellent... Relevant to our time! This is a must listen! Buy it! We, America, are worth the struggle...

Profound and Relevant

Holders of either secular and religious views would both do well to read this book. Using words and deeds ranging from the Founding Fathers through those of modern thinkers, a convincing case is presented for the genius of our Constitution in preserving to all both freedom of and from religion in our lives and public discourse.

A Vital Word for Americans to Ponder

In a lucid and deeply researched book Jon Meacham has pulled back the curtain of time to allow us to hear and see from the founders how they crafted the nation. Recognizing the importance of religion perennially in the life of humans, the founders set in place guidelines to how religion and government should interact. They did not spell out specifics but rather pointed a direction that they hoped would be fruitful in the life of the nation. Those who do not know the history of religion and politics in the life of the nation operate blindly. May this book help lift that blindness and shed light on our present times.

A Sing Song on Religion: An American Tune

American Gospel, by Jon Meacham, presents a balanced case displaying the place of religion in our personal lives and therein projects his discernment of religion’s persistence into our political affairs. He accomplishes the task by surveying situations where religion and political matters have come together in competition with and in support of goodness. He then adds to his storytelling by reiterating short commentaries of persons who were contemporaries of the coming-together occurrences.

At first, the reader may be discombobulated, but hang in there and experience the joy of learning the importance of truth in preserving the Constitutional political system. Our forefathers were well-read in the classics and knew how to apply their erudition. Meachum just tells their story in soft words and meaningful considerations.