Prophesies of Godlessness: Predictions of America's Imminent Secularization from the Puritans to the Present Day

by Christopher McKnight Nichols and Charles T. Mathewes

Book Overview

Prophesies of Godlessness explores the surprisingly similar expectations of religious and moral change voiced by major American thinkers from the time of the Puritans to today. These predictions of "godlessness" in American society -- sometimes by those favoring the foreseen future, sometimes by those fearing it -- have a history as old as America, and indeed seem crucially intertwined with it.

This book shows that there have been and continue...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195342542
• ISBN13: 9780195342543
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Nice Overview

As divided as the nation has become with the advent of the Culture War, some lessons in history, philosophy, religion, culture, and politics -- those very things which got us into the mess and are espoused to be the reasons for continuing it -- are most welcome. It is great to now have source materials and the background upon which to base reasons and arguments. History repeats itself, and so apparently do our blathering mouths. Hopefully we will learn not to fear that which is innate. Nothing is going away. Perhaps the old dictum about if you love something enough you can let it go is true. We need not crush what we love to death for fear of losing it. Open our arms and this bird might just hover around us forever. This is a nice resource and much needed addition to our understanding as a culture.