The Old Faith in a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past

The Old Faith in a New Nation uses hundreds of sources to show that between the Revolution and the Civil War, American Protestants were deeply interested in the meaning of the Christian past. Even while claiming to rely on "the Bible alone," evangelicals turned to Christian history to navigate pressing questions about church-state relations, Catholic immigration, women's rights and roles, slavery, and more. By tracing how American evangelicals remembered and used Christian history, The Old Faith in a New Nation interrogates the meaning of "biblicism" and provides context for evaluating the ways in which the religious past is remembered, contested, and memorialized today.