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The Most Evangelical Founding Father?

In spite of some Christian revisionist attempts to cast them all as evangelical believers, the Founding Fathers’ faiths ran the gamut from traditional Christianity to outright skepticism. I wrote my...

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Christmas in 1776

From the Patheos archive: ‘Tis the season to argue about religion. Or more specifically, to feud about whether to say Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings…to call it a Christmas Village or a Holiday...

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Why the Founding Fathers Spoke the King James Bible

One of the besetting problems of “Christian America” history writing is that it often interprets biblical quotes from the Founders as evidence that they were personally devout. Sometimes personally...

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The Constitution “Divinely Inspired”? Ben Franklin Answers

Last week I posted about a Ted Cruz rally at which Glenn Beck argued that the Constitution and the Bible were both “sacred scriptures.” What would the Founding Fathers think about this? It so happens...

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The New United States: A “Christian Nation”?

Politicians and pop history writers squabble endlessly about whether America was founded as a “Christian nation.” Skeptics routinely point to the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, in which American officials...

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Reassessing the Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was the most provocative Patriot action before the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. Most Americans vaguely know that the Tea Partiers pitched tea into Boston Harbor,...

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The Spiritual Danger of Monuments

Monuments to flawed heroes of the past are spiritually dangerous – but removing them may lead to even greater spiritual blindness.   At a time of new expressions of deep anger over a centuries-long...

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Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Myths of American History

Today we welcome Abram Van Engen to the Anxious Bench. Abram is Associate Professor of English and holds a courtesy appointment in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington...

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Dangerous Christian Nationalism? A conversation between Abram Van Engen and...

Last month, Abram Van Engen contributed a post here at the Anxious Bench on “Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Mythos of American History.” That post prompted Os Guinness to respond to...

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The Jefferson Bible: An Interview with Peter Manseau

Peter Manseau is Curator of American Religious History at the Smithsonian. His most recent book is The Jefferson Bible: A Biography, a contribution to Princeton University Press’s Lives of Great...

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