About this item
Fea offers an even-handed primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend. He approaches the title's question from a historical perspective, helping readers see past the emotional rhetoric of today to the recorded facts of our past. Readers on both sides of the issues will appreciate that this book occupies a middle ground, noting the good points and the less-nuanced arguments of both sides and leading us always back to the primary sources that our shared American history comprises.
About the Author
John Fea chairs the History Department at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. His writing on early American history has appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular venues. He is the author of *The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in America* (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) , *Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation* (Notre Dame University Press, 2010) ; *Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? : A Historical Introduction* (Westminster/John Knox Press, Feb. 2011, revised ed. Sept. 2016) ;, Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past* and, most recently, The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society. He blogs daily at www.thewayofimprovement.com
