Overview

Christianity, not religion in general, has been important for American democracy. With this bold thesis, Hugh Heclo offers a panoramic view of how Christianity and democracy have shaped each other. Heclo shows that amid deeply felt religious differences, a Protestant colonial society gradually convinced itself of the truly Christian reasons for, as well as the enlightened political advantages of, religious liberty. By the mid-20th century, American democracy and Christianity appeared locked in a mutual embrace. But it was a problematic union vulnerable to fundamental challenge in the Sixties. Despite the subsequent rise of the religious right and glib talk of a conservative Republican theocracy, Heclo sees a longer-term, reciprocal estrangement between Christianity and American democracy. Responding to his challenging argument, Mary Jo Bane, Michael Kazin, and Alan Wolfe criticize, qualify, and amend it. Heclo's rejoinder suggests why both secularists and Christians should worry about a coming rupture between the Christian and democratic faiths. The result is a lively debate about a momentous tension in American public life.

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9780674025141

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Reviews

[A] deeply engaging book...Heclo's book performs a valuable service.--Thomas E. Schneider Claremont Review of Books (06/01/2008) Heclo makes a strong case for the importance of Christianity in the shaping of American democracy.--E. J. Eisenach Choice (11/01/2007) Hugh Heclo offers an elegant and thoughtful essay in Christianity and American Democracy , together with responses by two political scientists and a historian...Heclo argues that not only does American democracy have a Christianity problem, but Christianity has a democracy problem. There is an inherent tension between religious commitment and political allegiance...and reconciling them is always a fudge of some kind. Heclo rehearses, lucidly and economically, the history of America's different modes of fudging the issue. He documents the input of Christian ideas into the development of the democratic concept of the individual...Hugh Heclo's book shows clearly that America's culture wars are just a specific case of the general problem of religion in democratic pluralist polities.--Bernice Martin Times Literary Supplement (04/16/2008) Let me say it straight out: Hugh Heclo's Christianity and American Democracy is one of the most suggestive books on religion and the public square to have appeared in some years.--Richard John Neuhaus First Things (10/01/2007)

Hugh Heclo offers an elegant and thoughtful essay in Christianity and American Democracy , together with responses by two political scientists and a historian...Heclo argues that not only does American democracy have a Christianity problem, but Christianity has a democracy problem. There is an inherent tension between religious commitment and political allegiance...and reconciling them is always a fudge of some kind. Heclo rehearses, lucidly and economically, the history of America's different modes of fudging the issue. He documents the input of Christian ideas into the development of the democratic concept of the individual...Hugh Heclo's book shows clearly that America's culture wars are just a specific case of the general problem of religion in democratic pluralist polities. -- Bernice Martin Times Literary Supplement (04/16/2008)

Author Information

Hugh Heclo is Robinson Professor of Public Affairs, George Mason University. Mary Jo Bane is Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Michael Kazin is Professor of History, Georgetown University. Alan Wolfe is Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and Professor of Political Science, Boston College.

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