From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin provides an iconoclastic new history of the entrance of evangelical Christians into national American politics. Examining the key players of the ?Religious Right? ? Bi
From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin provides an iconoclastic new history of the entrance of evangelical Christians into national American politics. Examining the key players of the ?Religious Right? ? Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and many others ? D. G. Hart argues that evangelicalism is (and always has been) a bad fit with classic political conservatism.
Hart shows how the uneasy alliance of these unlikely political bedfellows has contributed directly to the fragmentation of today?s conservative movement. He contends that the ongoing burden of reconciling the progressive moral idealism of religious conservatives with the sober realism of political conservatives increasingly threatens this precarious partnership. Moreover, Hart suggests that evangelicals are unlikely to remain politically conservative in the long term unless they stop looking to big government to solve societal woes at home and abroad and at last embrace classic small-government conservatism for its own sake.
Michael Cromartie
— Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center
"Modern evangelicalism, because of its many parts and persuasions, has been said to resemble a mosaic or even a kaleidoscope. In this timely book D. G. Hart gives a thorough overview of this mosaic, looking closely at contemporary evangelicals' political engagement in recent history. While much of evangelicalism has been seen as politically conservative, Hart makes an intriguing case that it has been so in an insufficient fashion. Evangelicals need to become more Augustinian in their theology, he argues, and begin attending as much to the Federalist Papers as they do to the Scriptures. "This book offers an important challenge to evangelical leaders, pastors, and activists alike: focus on the 'permanent things,' remember your pilgrim citizenship, and never forget that the ultimate purposes of history are not determined by politics. This is not to diminish appropriate political concerns but to only put them in proper perspective. Buy a copy of this book for your pastor and also give one to your favorite Christian political activist. By doing so you will raise the level of theological, and political, conversation in the church."
Booklist
"Maximally enlightening political-religious argumentation."
The Historian
“This book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing historiographical conversation regarding conservative politics in the United States and will certainly prompt an interested and lively discussion on this issue.”
Journal of Church and State
“This is a book that deserves to be noticed and to be deeply pondered by every type of American evangelical Christian — especially those who engage politics and the public square.”
The University Bookman
“Hart has done an excellent job of exploring the intellectual and political history. Furthermore, and more important, he has written the kind of book which forces the reader to grapple with his thesis and to be left more thoughtful in the process.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Erudite and well-researched, Hart’s style is approachable and often witty. . . . General readers will be taken aback to learn that evangelical Protestantism isn’t always — and perhaps is only rarely — conservative in nature.”
Voice of Reason
“A very provocative and interesting book.”
The American Conservative
“Darryl Hart’s new book on the role of evangelical and the conservative movement offers a critical missing piece in understanding the ongoing role of evangelical Christian in American politics.”
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