Book Review of “Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular”

Book Review: Janet Neer, Coordinator

Resident Lon Chesnutt reviews Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022] by David A. Hollinger on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 7 PM in the Auditorium.

Have you ever wondered, “How did the religious right, known for its commitment to a conversion experience and clean moral living, ever become the stronghold for a presidential candidate who makes no effort to claim a vital Christian faith and has been publicly convicted for being a womanizer?”  If so, then this book review could help provide an answer.

Hollinger follows religion in the USA from a predominately Protestant beginning through the migration of Roman Catholics in the early 18th century, Jews in the late 18th century, and Asian religions of Buddhism and Islam in the 20th and 21st centuries.

His coverage shows how each of these groups made changes in the US culture along with the growth of what he calls a ’Secular’ society.

Hollinger explains the origins of what he calls Protestantism’s “two-party system” in the United States–the Evangelicals and the Ecumenicals, finding its roots in America’s religious culture of dissent, as established by 17th-century colonists who broke away from Europe’s religious traditions; the constitutional separation of church and state, which enabled religious diversity; and the constant influx of immigrants, who found solidarity in churches. Hollinger argues that the United States became not only overwhelmingly Protestant but Protestant on steroids. By the 1960s, Jews and other non-Christians had diversified the nation ethnically and religiously, inspiring more inclusive notions of community.

How the Protestant majority split into two major groupings is the tale that fascinates Hollinger as he explores the growth in influence of the Evangelicals when big money and a major political party became a standard part of their public face.  By embracing a socially diverse and scientifically engaged modernity, Hollinger tells us, Ecumenical Protestants also set the terms by which Evangelicals became reactionary.

Come and see where you fit in this American saga.

 David Hollinger is a respected historian who has been researching religious history in America during his career. Lon Chesnutt, a retired minister, is an active Charlestown resident and frequent book review presenter.