Head and Heart: American Christianities

Front Cover
Penguin, 2007 - History - 626 pages
An examination of Christianity's place in American life through history, from the Puritans to the administration of George W. Bush. The struggle within American Christianity, historian Wills argues, has been between the head and the heart: reason and emotion, Enlightenment and Evangelicalism. 18th century America saw a religious revolution--an Enlightenment culture emerged whose hallmarks were tolerance for other faiths and a belief that religion was best divorced from political institutions. Wills shows how radical a departure this was, and shows the steps by which church-state separation was enshrined in the Constitution. He shows a repeating pattern in our history: a cooling of popular religious fervor, followed by an explosion in evangelical activity--generally during times of social transformation and anxiety--and then a backlash. Wills's message is to be vigilant against the triumph of emotions over reason, but to know that the tension between them is necessary, inevitable, and unending.--From publisher description.

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Contents

PREENLIGHTENMENT RELIGION
11
The Puritan Psyche
37
The Puritan Conscience
54
The Puritan Intellect
67
Samuel Sewall Roger Williams
85
The Great Awakening
100
ENLIGHTENED RELIGION
119
Quakers
135
SecondComing Theology
355
SecondComing Politics
368
The Social Gospel
383
Evangelicals Riding High
399
Evangelicals Brought Low
415
Religion in a Radical Time
429
The Great Religious Truce
451
The Rights Revolution
465

Deists
153
Beyond Tolerance
175
Jeffersons Statute
189
Schism in New England
255
Emersonians
271
The Second Great Awakening
287
Schisms over Slavery
303
God of Battles
316
Religion in the Gilded Age
336
Evangelicals Counterattack
480
FaithBased Government
497
Ecumenical Karl
515
Life After Rove
531
Separation Not Suppression
547
Acknowledgments
553
Jeffersons Virginia Statute
599
Index
610
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of Saint Augustine's Childhood, Saint Augustine's Memory, and Saint Augustine's Sin, the first three volumes in this series, as well as the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine. His other books include "Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power, Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

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