The Role of Christianity in Modern U.S. History with David Hollinger
What counts as Christianity is always achieved, never given. It all depends on who gets control of the local franchise. The more the American franchise is controlled by culturally and politically conservative evangelicals, the narrower the role of Christianity in American life, the less likely we are to recognize the ways in which ecumenical Protestantism liberalized the politics and culture of the United States, and the more certain becomes the overall decline of Christianity's significance. Secularization is proceeding at an unprecedented pace, but it is often obscured by the alliance between the Republican Party and white evangelical Protestants.
About the Speaker
David A. Hollinger is Preston Hotchkis Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a former President of the Organization of American Historians, and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.