Under God: Religion and American Politics » (Bargain)

One of our foremost Catholic intellectuals, bestselling author Garry Wills writes thoughtful, provocative nonfiction that roams across history, politics, and religion.

In Under God, Garry Wills, one of our liveliest and most eminent political observers, moves through the tapestry of American history, illuminating the instances where American politics and American religion have collided.

Beginning with the 1988 presidential contest, an election that included two ministers and a senator accused of sin, Wills surveys our history to show the continuity of present controversies with past religious struggles and argues that the secular standards of the Founding Fathers have been misunderstood. He shows that despite reactionary fire-breathers and fanatics, religion has often been a progressive force in American politics and explains why the policy of a separate church and state has, ironically, made the position of the church stronger.

Marked by the extraordinary quality of observation that has defined the work of Garry Wills, Under God is a rich, original look at why religion and politics will never be separate in the United States.

Publishers Weekly

Explicating his theory that religion is an inextricable element of American political life, Wills sheds new light on the 1988 presidential campaign. While George Bush wooed Jerry Falwell and extolled patriotism, religion, law and order, Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson--both ordained ministers, both from the South, both advocates of a moral revival--represented antipodal political extremes. The ``secularity'' of Michael Dukakis's campaign came across in his ``pinched ideal of politics,'' while Gary Hart, a product of Yale Divinity School, failed to find ``a new moral language'' to account for personal indiscretions. Wills ( Reagan's America ) writes incisively of Mario Cuomo's stand on abortion and of Robert Bork, ``a friend of censorship.'' He gives his central thesis historical ballast; for example, Abraham Lincoln saw the Civil War as an act of ``expiatory suffering,'' and deist Thomas Jefferson in his private writings revealed his enthusiasm for Jesus's ethical doctrines. Author tour. (Nov.)

Introduction     15
Sin and Secularity     27
New Moral Language     29
Holiness and Gary Hart     41
Fatal Composure     51
Jeremiad: The Extreme Center     62
A Theology of Willie Horton     70
Playing to Win     76
Secular Innocence     86
Bible Beginnings     95
The Superman Trial     97
Scopes: Who Won?     108
Refighting Scopes     115
Bible Endings: "Premil"     125
Fundamentals     127
America's Miliast Founders     138
Reagan and "the Prophecies"     144
Fundamentalism and the Quayles     152
"Postmil": Pat Robertson     165
Coffee-Cup Apocalypse     167
Campaigning     176
"Claiming"     184
Politics and Black Religion     193
African-American Miliasm     195
Lincoln's Black Theology     207
Marginal Man     222
Preacher Jesse     235
Preacher Andy     245
What Did Jesse Want?     256
Politics and Pornography     269
"With Ladies Present"     271
In Praise of Censure     280
A Theology of Erotica     291
Politics and Abortion     303
Catholics: Mario Cuomo     305
Evangelicals: Francis Schaeffer     318
Feminists and Fundamentalism     329
Church and State     339
Religious Separatism     341
Jefferson: The Uses of Religion     354
Jefferson: The Protection of Religion     363
Madison and the Honor of God     373
Conclusion     381
Notes     387
Index     425