Summary :
M any Americans have been taught a distorted, inaccurate account of our nation's founding, one that claims that the founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state and that the country's founding political ideas developed without reference to Christianity. In this revelatory, rigorously argued new book, Mark David Hall thor- oughly debunks that modern myth and shows instead that the founders' political ideas were profoundly influenced by their Christian convictions. Drawing from hundreds of personal letters, public proclamations, early state constitutions and laws, and other origi- nal documents, Professor Hall makes the airtight case that America's founders were not deists; that they did not create a "god- less" Constitution; that even Jefferson and Madison did not want a high wall separat- ing church and state; that most founders believed the government should encourage Christianity; and that they embraced a robust understanding of religious liberty for biblical and theological reasons. In addition, Hall explains why and how the founders' views are absolutely relevant today. Did America Have a Christian Founding? is a compelling, utterly convincing closing argument in the debate about the role of faith in the nation's founding, making it clear that Christian thought was crucial to the nation's founding and demonstrating that this benefits all of us, whatever our faith (or lack thereof).

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