Messiah College News Archive

The question of whether America was truly founded as a Christian nation is one that is hotly debated on today’s political stages. It is also the primary question addressed by the new book, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation,” by John Fea, associate professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah College. Published by Westminster John Knox Press, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation” is a historical primer that examines the title question through three different lenses: by considering the history of the idea that the United States is a Christian nation; by analyzing whether or not the American Revolution was a Christian event; and by investigating the religious beliefs of the founding fathers.

About “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?”
“We live in a sound-bite culture that makes it difficult to have any sustained dialogue on these historical issues,” writes Fea in the opening pages of his book. “One of my goals in writing ‘Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?’ is to get Christians to see the danger of cherry-picking from the past as a means of promoting a political or cultural agenda in the present.”

In the book, Fea challenges readers to look past the emotional rhetoric of today and focus on the recorded facts of the past. He begins by instructing readers how to think historically and then unpacks early American history in a way that clearly defines terms—like “Christian,” “nation” and “founded”—most apt to be abused and manipulated by those using the past to meet a political agenda.

Fea’s book is being met with praise from historians and theologians alike. Bob Abernethy, executive editor and host of “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” praises, “This is a wonderful book—fascinating, timely, carefully researched, clearly written, and deeply helpful. Would that those on all sides of this issue could read this book and, as a consequence, accept the nuances and complexities that Fea identifies so well.”

About John Fea
John Fea is associate professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah College. Fea received his Ph.D. from Stony Brook University and has written extensively for both scholarly and popular audiences.

Fea is also the author of “The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). He co-edited “Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010). His next book, “The Power to Transform: A Christian Reflection on the Study of the Past” will appear in 2012.

Fea’s essays and reviews on the history of American culture have appeared in “The Journal of American History,” “The William and Mary Quarterly,” “The Journal of the Early Republic,” “Explorations in Early American Culture,” the “New Pantagruel,” “The Cresset” and “Common Place.” He has also written for a number of national newspapers. His weekly column, “Confessing History,” appears on the religion website Patheos. Fea also blogs daily at The Way of Improvement Leads Home (philipvickersfithian.com/).