God of Liberty
A Religious History of the American Revolution
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Narrated by:
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Mark Coffin
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By:
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Thomas S. Kidd
About this listen
Before the Revolutionary War, America was a nation divided by different faiths. But when the war for independence sparked in 1776, colonists united under the banner of religious freedom. Evangelical frontiersmen and Deist intellectuals set aside their differences to defend a belief they shared, the right to worship freely. Inspiring an unlikely but powerful alliance, it was the idea of religious liberty that brought the colonists together in the battle against British tyranny.
In God of Liberty, historian Thomas S. Kidd argues that the improbable partnership of evangelicals and Deists saw America through the Revolutionary War, the ratification of the Constitution, and the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. A thought-provoking reminder of the crucial role religion played in the Revolutionary era, God of Liberty represents both a timely appeal for spiritual diversity and a groundbreaking excavation of how faith powered the American Revolution.
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Thomas Jefferson was arguably the most brilliant and inspiring political writer in American history. But the ethical realities of his personal life and political career did not live up to his soaring rhetoric. Indeed, three tensions defined Jefferson’s moral life: democracy versus slavery, republican virtue versus dissolute consumption, and veneration for Jesus versus skepticism about Christianity. In this book, Thomas S. Kidd tells the story of Jefferson’s ethical life through the lens of these tensions.
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This version is the standard non in depth bio
- By Fred F on 03-28-24
By: Thomas S. Kidd
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The Civil War as a Theological Crisis
- By: Mark A. Noll
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and nations, but they were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the war.
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Nice addition to History of U.S. Religious Culture
- By Lisa Larges on 06-04-12
By: Mark A. Noll
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Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections)
- The Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage
- By: Stephen Prothero
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Though they may seem to be dividing the country irreparably, today's heated cultural and political battles between right and left, progressives and the Tea Party, religious and secular are far from unprecedented. In this engaging and important work, Stephen Prothero reframes the current debate, viewing it as the latest in a number of flashpoints that have shaped our national identity.
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Resistance to Change
- By Joanne on 04-07-16
By: Stephen Prothero
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Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul
- Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."
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Fascinating Story and Legacy
- By Bruce on 04-11-12
By: John M. Barry
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Rebel in the Ranks
- Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World
- By: Brad S. Gregory
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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For five centuries, Martin Luther has been lionized as an outspoken and fearless icon of change who ended the Middle Ages and heralded the beginning of the modern world. In Rebel in the Ranks, Brad Gregory, renowned professor of European history at Notre Dame, recasts this long-accepted portrait. Luther did not intend to start a revolution that would divide the Catholic Church and forever change Western civilization. Yet his actions would profoundly shape our world in ways he could never have imagined.
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Something to think about
- By Like Loehe on 09-19-17
By: Brad S. Gregory
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Freethinkers
- A History of American Secularism
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers offers a powerful defense of the secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason. In impassioned, elegant prose, celebrated author Susan Jacoby traces more than 200 years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution.
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Essential history of free thought in America
- By Clark Savage on 11-27-17
By: Susan Jacoby
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Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures
- 18 Lessons on Reformed, Catholic, 'Post-New Perspective,' and Jewish Understandings of Paul
- By: Michael F. Bird, Douglas A. Campbell, Mark D. Nanos, and others
- Narrated by: Michael F. Bird, Douglas A. Campbell, Mark D. Nanos, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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Recent years have seen much controversy about the apostle Paul, his context, and its effect on his theology. In Four Views on the Apostle Paul: Audio Lectures, four leading scholars present their views on the best framework for describing Paul's theological perspective, including his view of salvation, the significance of Christ, and his vision for the churches.
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Author intro needs help
- By EverDave on 10-25-20
By: Michael F. Bird, and others
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment", as a postscript. Here he discusses the intense nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
- By John M. Crean on 04-21-19
By: Bernard Bailyn
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The Lost History of Liberalism
- From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
- By: Helena Rosenblatt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking listeners from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism", revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights.
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Educative and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 06-05-19
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
What listeners say about God of Liberty
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- JR The MAC
- 08-15-22
A must read
This is a must read especially for those in political work. The presentation of facts leaves no room for question of faith and religion and their importance in these United States.
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- S. Keating
- 09-10-12
good overall
Would you listen to God of Liberty again? Why?
It is an informative overview of the influence of Christianity on the Founding period. Two drawbacks- it does not spend as much time on the revolutionary period and skips ahead to the Early Republic too quickly. He tends to belong to the many Founders were Deists school, though that has been largely disproven. He also casually convicts Jefferson in the Sally Hemings affair without considering evidence to the contrary. Otherwise quite good besides these quibbles.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Adam Shields
- 03-24-16
The founding has a complicated religious history
As I was finishing up In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life 1492-1783 by Mark Noll, I picked up God of Liberty. Thomas Kidd’s history is well known and spoken of well by Mark Noll and many others. God of Liberty was the historical overview that I needed after the very particular history of the use of scripture.
The role of Christian faith in the founding of the United States is fraught matter. All sides have reasons for why it matters (often more about current events than historical accuracy.) And because there are a large number of founding fathers, pretty much anyone can find support for their position by proof texting a few pamphlets or speeches or sermons.
God of Liberty does a good job at showing the complication of any particular position. Christian faith was important to many in the colonies, both as a reason for coming to the colonies and as a reason for breaking away from Britain. But separation of Church and state, at least in it early incarnations, was also important in how the country was organized during and immediately after the revolution.
England had a state church, so many of the more radical revolutionaries were against state churches as a concept. But many of the colonies already had a state church with their own constituencies and theological reasonings.
As Noll illustrated, many of the ways that scripture (and Christianity) were used in political rhetoric were more about referencing ideas than referencing God or scripture or identifying directly with orthodox Christian faith.
There really were a lot of deists among the founding fathers. But there were also more than a few devout Christians, and more than a few politicians willing to put their public devotion on display.
I was more interested in the religious parts of the political history than the actual religious history sections because I have a pretty good background on the great awakenings and the founding of Baptists in the US and some other fairly common topics in history of American Evangelicalism. But if you are looking for a history of early Evangelicalism this isn’t a bad place to start.
This along with Noll’s history and Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton are three back to back books on early American history. All three hit very different areas of history and are all well written. This is an area that has many good books.
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- Frank Bellamy
- 02-21-19
Good history, bad prejudice
There is a lot of good history here, but Kidd's framing evidences a prejudice against atheists. The notion of religious inclusiveness that the founding generation tended to adhere to did not extend any farther than protestantism, there was a lot of anti-catholic and antisemitic prejudice, and Kidd does a good job of describing this history without approving of it. Clearly, Kidd believes that we modern people should have a more expansive notion of religious inclusiveness than the founding generation. But his notion of inclusivity stops at monotheists. He is quite clear, especially in the epilogue, that he thinks America should maintain its practices of excluding non-monotheists from public life (ten commandments monuments, prayers at public events, etc), and seriously misrepresents current demographic trends by claiming that america is still as religious as ever, when in fact religion is on a steep decline in the United States today. In short, he hypocritically relies on deference to the founders for the idea that we should continue to exclude the nonreligious from public life, while rejecting the founders particular notion of which religious people to include in public life. This kind of prejudice should not be tolerated.
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2 people found this helpful
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- R. Hazen
- 02-04-20
Fascinating convergence of theology and politics
Today there is so much ignorance regarding the religious atmosphere during the American Revolution. I don’t think anything at all is taught in school anymore. This book is a great historical refresher and dispeller of modern myths about the role of religion at the beginning of the nation. If you’ve been taught that the forefathers were mostly deists and irreligious and America was just a wild rebellious place, or are just unsure about the actual importance of religion in America’s past, you definitely to read God of Liberty.
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1 person found this helpful