Religion and Nationalism in the United States: A History

Harvard HDS

Many Americans have imagined the United States as having a religious identity as a “city on a hill,” a “redeemer nation,” or “the new Israel.” We will ask several questions in this course: How and why have Americans conceived of the nation in sacred terms? How have religious images of the nation developed and changed over time? Does the United States have a “civil religion”? What is white Christian nationalism, and what are its historic roots? Readings will cover the period from the American…