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Head and heart : American Christianities by…
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Head and heart : American Christianities (edition 2007)

by Garry Wills

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386765,396 (3.78)5
Disappointing, in that I expected more of Wills. At first, it seems to be a survey of Christian history in the USA and the treatment of the colonial period and the early years of the republic, up to the 2nd great awakening, are certainly adequate in that regard. Unfortunately, about half way through, Wills more or less abandons his chronological scheme and simply recycles some of his recent writings (mostly from the New York Review of Books) while exploring issues that catch his interest (prohibition, Darwinism, women's rights) with little regard to their relevancy to his theme, which is the tension between "head" (enlightenment thought and progressive Christianity) and "heart" (evangelicalism and fundamentalism). In the process, he ignores a number of significant events in the history of American Christianity, including any mention of such home-grown Christianities as Mormonism, Christian Science, Unity and Christian Universalism. This is just unacceptable. ( )
  jburlinson | Apr 30, 2012 |
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This volume by Garry Wills is one of the more notable contemporary takes on American religious history. I was pleased by Wills’ engaging style, ability to clearly summarize, and honest attempts to relate both sides of what is perhaps one of the most complex national religious histories. Wills adopts a model of American Christianity as comprising two “poles” or “tendencies,” one of which he labels “Enlightened Religion” and the other “Evangelical Religion.”

It was Enlightened Religion-religion focused on the “laws of nature and of nature’s God”-that gave us our unique freedom of religion and “might also be considered the typical American religion.” Evangelical Religion, on the other hand, focused on an experiential religion, best symbolized by the “revival,” of which America has experienced several major movements.

Obviously, a scholar (especially one of Wills’ stature) is free to choose any sort of analytical rubric to describe his or her topic. However. In this case, it becomes painfully obvious as the book progresses that Wills’ decision to adopt a tired dialectical construct serves in the end to flatten rather than enrich his view of the peculiarities of American religiosity.

In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the book is an apology for Enlightened Religion over against Evangelical Religion. This does issue in a very fine discussion of the historical development of the principle of “separation of church and state,” a concept that has been very much abused by progressives and conservatives alike down through the years. However, Wills has a clear distaste for all things Evangelical that sometimes borders on active malice. It is clear by the end of the book (published during the end of George W. Bush’s presidency) that Wills’ key fear was an apparent Evangelical “takeover” of government. It is a bit ironic to me that a book that so stresses the need for separation of “church” and “state,” ends up in its final chapters becoming a commentary on the presidential administration. It seems Wills himself cannot seem to keep those lines clear.

I don’t mean to misrepresent Wills. I think he honestly does try to remain fair-handed in his analysis, and he does emphasize at several points that Enlightened and Evangelical religion really do need each other in order to survive. However, as the book progresses, bias begins to slip in, perhaps most egregiously with his claim that Evangelicals believe that gays “have no rights at all.” Of course. All Evangelicals believe that same-sex orientation strips you of all human and political rights. In my lifetime as what Wills would call an “Evangelical” (more on THAT in a moment), I’ve NEVER heard ANY leader who was deeply convinced that homosexual acts were defined by Scripture as sinful say anything other than that we should treat all people with respect and dignity and, most importantly, show to everyone the love of Christ. Perhaps I’ve been sheltered, but I rather believe that Wills is looking to some very “fringe” voices as representative of what HE thinks the Evangelical arm of American Christianity looks like.
Which leads me to my last (and most important) critique of this work. I was absolutely flummoxed to find that NOT EVEN ONCE did Garry Wills mention Pentecostalism. He claims that the iconic element of American Evangelical Religion is the “revival”…but fails completely to discuss the dynamics and global impact of the Azusa Street Revival. I’ll be honest: I find this omission absolutely inexcusable, especially for someone like Wills. It is either evidence of woeful ignorance or an inexcusable bias. The Pentecostal revival is perhaps America’s greatest impact of the 20th-century on the landscape of world religion.

What makes this omission so crushing to Wills’ work here is that Pentecostalism was despised by BOTH the enlightened Modernists and the evangelical Fundamentalists (for different reasons, obviously). However, it was something truly new and different…an actual “third way” between the poles of Enlightened and Evangelical Religion. Therefore, because Pentecostalism did not “fit” Wills’ framework, he apparently deigned it unworthy of his analysis.

For me, this book concluded as just another lesson in the failure of dialectical analysis that forces us to define only TWO sides to every story which leads to all sorts of distortions of the complexity of lived reality and destroys the ability to nuance. And it made me very sad. I liked reading Wills; his research was always thorough, his style was easy to follow, he shared many important insights. But, I feel that I must conclude that, though he stresses the important role of Enlightened Religion in American history, Wills’ understanding of American religion (at least, as it presented in this work) remains pretty unenlightened. ( )
  Jared_Runck | Nov 16, 2019 |
Capsule review: I think if you are interested at all in the history of religion and its relation to politics in the US, you will find much of interest in this book.

More in depth: Wills uses the well-worn thesis that there is a tension in American religion between the Enlightenment and Romanticism to explore some aspects of the history of mainstream Christianity in American history. His thesis is that we are best when we use both our heads (Enlightenment attitudes) and hearts (Romantic influences) to govern our religious life.

Considering how many time's I've read this thesis before, I was surprised at how much new material I encountered, especially in the area of the religion of the Founders and the early history of Evangelicalism. Also, Wills prose is so easy to read, that even going over material I had dealt with before, I did not find myself impatient or skipping ahead.

Written in 2007, the last chapter of this book deals with the Bush II administration's use and misuse of religion. I almost skipped that, but I'm glad I didn't because it contain, among other things, one of the most lucid critiques of Evangelical abortion "theology" that I have ever read.

As a general history of Christianity in the U.S., this book is heavy on the Puritans, Founders and Second Great Awakening and light on the 20th century, especially the great divide between modern Biblical criticism and Evangelical fundamentals. However, Wills is relying on some excellent books as his source material, and (if you can dig them out of the footnotes) you can follow up on any topic you want more information on. ( )
  aulsmith | Sep 5, 2014 |
Disappointing, in that I expected more of Wills. At first, it seems to be a survey of Christian history in the USA and the treatment of the colonial period and the early years of the republic, up to the 2nd great awakening, are certainly adequate in that regard. Unfortunately, about half way through, Wills more or less abandons his chronological scheme and simply recycles some of his recent writings (mostly from the New York Review of Books) while exploring issues that catch his interest (prohibition, Darwinism, women's rights) with little regard to their relevancy to his theme, which is the tension between "head" (enlightenment thought and progressive Christianity) and "heart" (evangelicalism and fundamentalism). In the process, he ignores a number of significant events in the history of American Christianity, including any mention of such home-grown Christianities as Mormonism, Christian Science, Unity and Christian Universalism. This is just unacceptable. ( )
  jburlinson | Apr 30, 2012 |
"We remonstrate against the said Bill,...3. Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?" From Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments. All Americans should familiarize themselves with this extraordinary document, and notice how the clear intent of the Constitution is now being wantonly violated in every respect...and how the principles set forth here are applicable much more widely than just to the separation of church and state. Madison was the greatest political thinker who ever lived.

Wills begins with the story of Mary Dyer, the Quaker woman who was hanged in Boston by the Puritans for...well, being a Quaker, and follows the history of Christianity in America through the present day. He pays particular attention to the deism of the nation's founders during the Enlightenment era, which is his area of greatest expertise. Unfortunately, he doesn't do as well with some other areas, such as his coverage of the so-called "Gilded Age", which is so one-sided as to be mere caricature, objecting to "social Darwinism", "robber barons", and "American imperialism" (to be fair, though, these subjects are relevant to the religious developments of the period which he's exploring). There's also a problem with his basic explanatory framework, his notion of "head" and "heart" as poles toward which religious expression can move (and the ideal being some moderate amount of each)---unfortunately, this is a sort of equivocal package-deal, which in various places he uses to mean mind-body integration, intellect and emotion, Enlightenment and Evangelism...but what it really boils down to is reason vs. blind faith. Christopher Hitchens is much more consistent in identifying the correct principles involved in his God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Still, even though I disagree with some of his evaluations, Wills's historical analysis is usually dead-on (with a few exceptions, such as his strange cherry-picking of quotes from The Age of Reason to make Thomas Paine seem less irreligious than he actually was, something which he does not do with any of the other founders and in fact criticizes other Christians for doing). This book is a valuable resource for anyone concerned about religion in America today...and if you're not concerned about it, you should be. ( )
  AshRyan | Dec 18, 2011 |
An exceptional, but certainly not perfect, history of Christianity in the United States. (Notice that I said "of Christianity"; this, as advertised, is NOT a general religious history of the United States, but just of Christianity.) Anyway, Wills is pretty consistent with his thesis throughout, even if it gets sort of lost at times. At times fascinating, skull-numbingly detailed at others, it becomes ever more clear as the book wears on where Wills's passions and biases are (hint: contra Religious Right in all ways, shapes and forms). So, with those biases so blatant, branding this work full on 'history' is kind of tough, but even still, I found it an exceptional read. I put it alongside Prothero's "American Jesus" as some of the more thoughtful and accessible stuff I've read on the whirlpool mixture of American culture and American Christianity. ( )
  dixonparnell | Jun 29, 2010 |
Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winning historian with a deep grounding in religion. This is more unusual than you might think. Most academics, even if they have the background, miss out on the conviction. Wills is also very well read, which is unusual in these days when bestsellers gloss over the complexities. To be really informative, rather than just an opinion piece, an author must fully understand and respect both (or more) sides of any issue and be able to explain them. Wills does. This is not to imply that Wills lacks opinions. He is forthright in delivering them, but it does not get in the way of the history.

The topic is not Christianity in America, but the varieties of Christianities. For example, rapture theology might be a recent innovation, but it comes from a deep current in American religious practice. Under Wills' hands, Deists have their time in the sun, the Methodists take over the country and the Baptists evolve from an embattled minority fighting against established religion to proponents of faith based government.

While Wills spends a great deal of time on mini-biographies of seminal figures, he has a major theme which he follows through the centuries, the swing of the pendulum between Enlightenment (head) and Evangelical (heart) religion. He does not see these as enemies or opposites, just poles that most of us swing between. It is an excellent organizing principle.

So who is this book for? It is a good general text on religion and its impact on American history, sure to inform a general reader without becoming academic. It is excellent at the Enlightenment and Romanticism and how they fit into the development of of American intellectual and religious history. It helps explain how denominations come into existence, grow and mature. It covers the rise of the Religious Right and its century long impact on U.S. culture.

I give this book high marks. I like an author who knows what he is talking about. I like non-fiction that doesn't just cover the winners and gives the forgotten giants their due. The text is clear, but not dumbed down. I like opinions when they don't get in the way of solid analysis. I wanted to read it twice. ( )
  neotradlibrarian | Jan 22, 2008 |
Wills does a fine job exploring the history of religion in the U.S. in this book. The theme (that religion in the U.S. has been characterized by a tension and vacillation between "The Head," or the rational religion of the Enlightenment , and "The Heart," or the more emotionally based religion of Evangelism) is understated, but pretty well explored. I felt that too much attention may have been placed on the current connection between conservative Christianity and the Bush administration. I agree with Wills' perception of the subject, but I'm not convinced that this period is momentous enough in the big picture to have deserved the multiple chapters Wills gave it. But aside from this quibbling, the work is exceptional. ( )
  derekstaff | Dec 3, 2007 |
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