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city on a hill

Wednesday night court evangelical roundup

John Fea   |  July 1, 2020

What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update? It looks likes COVID-19 was present at Robert Jeffress’s Sunday morning political rally at First Baptist-Dallas. Newt Gingrich is on the Eric Metaxas Show today talking about his new book Trump and the American...

An Introduction to the Winthrop Family Papers

John Fea   |  October 2, 2019

Peter Olsen-Harbich, a Ph.D Candidate at William & Mary, reflects on his experience working with the Winthrop Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.  Here is a taste: Among the austere manuscripts of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s collection resides an...

Episode 45: A City Upon a Hill

  |  February 10, 2019

One of the most enduring phrases at the heart of American exceptionalism is John Winthrop’s famous proclamation that the Puritan colonists were establishing a “city upon a hill.” But the story of this lay sermon is much more complicated, and,...

The Author’s Corner with Daniel Rodgers

John Fea   |  December 13, 2018

Daniel Rodgers is Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. This interview is based on his new book As a City on a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon (Princeton University Press, 2018). JF: What led you to...

Was America Born Capitalist?

John Fea   |  November 27, 2018

We are working hard to get Princeton University historian Daniel Rodgers on the podcast.  He is the author of  As a City Upon a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon.  (He will be featured on the Author’s...

The End of American Exceptionalism?

John Fea   |  July 24, 2018

Today I will be teaching John Winthrop’s sermon A Model of Christian Charity to the teachers in the Princeton Seminar.  You may know this as the famous “city upon a hill” sermon.  Winthrop’s words have been used by several U.S presidents...

Barton: God Brings Bad Weather Because of Abortion

John Fea   |  June 20, 2017

In 17th-century New England, the Puritans set out to forge a “City on a Hill,” a society based upon the teachings of the Bible as they understood them.  They believed that they were a new Israel and thus lived in...

What Do Eric Metaxas and Hillary Clinton Have in Common?

John Fea   |  September 1, 2016

They both believe that America is a “shining city on a hill.” Some of you may remember that I questioned the way Eric Metaxas used this phrase in his book If You Can Keep It.  You can read the criticism here....

My Review Series on Metaxas's "If You Can Keep It": A Wrap-Up at RNS

John Fea   |  July 13, 2016

Six posts are enough.  I could say a lot more about Eric Metaxas’s book If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, but I decided, for a variety of reasons, to bring the series to an end yesterday....

Review of Eric Metaxas, "If You Can Keep It: Part 6

John Fea   |  July 12, 2016

We are in the midst of a short series on Eric Metaxas’s new book If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. This post, our final one in the series, examines Metaxas’s understanding of American exceptionalism, an idea...

When Faith Meets Presidential Politics: Some Problems with Marco Rubio's Debate Performance Last Night

John Fea   |  January 29, 2016

Earlier this month Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign introduced us to an impressive list of believing scholars and thinkers—many of them evangelical Christians—who agreed to be part of his newly formed religious advisory committee. If last night’s debate is any indication,...

The Author's Corner with John D. Wilsey

John Fea   |  December 10, 2015

John D. Wilsey is Assistant Professor of History and Christian Apologetics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. This interview is based on his new book, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea (IVP Academic, 2015). JF: What led...

What Is American Exceptionalism?

John Fea   |  September 29, 2015

As I have noted here before, I am looking forward to the release of John Wilsey’s book American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea. Wilsey, a professor of history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes from...

John Kasich Invokes the “City on a Hill”

John Fea   |  September 17, 2015

John F. Kennedy invoked the phrase in a speech to Massachusetts General Court in January 1961 before he headed off to Washington D.C. to be inaugurated President of the United States. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaXt7GE0aUo] Ronald Reagan invoked the phrase in the...

Reflecting on the American Redemption Script

John Fea   |  June 25, 2013

The United States is a nation of second chances. Or is it?  Shadd Maruna and Charles Barber, experts on prison rehabilitation and reform, discuss the ebbs and flows of the American ideal of “redemption.”  Here is a taste of their...

Moral Reflection vs. Moral Judgment

John Fea   |  January 16, 2013

I have been enjoying Tracy McKenzie‘s reflections on moral judgment and the American idea of manifest destiny.  I think I approach the question of moral reflection in historical inquiry a little bit differently, but we both seem to end up...

George McGovern, 1972, and the “City on a Hill”

John Fea   |  August 23, 2012

Over the past few days I have been working my way through Jefferson Cowie’s riveting and deeply satisfying Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (The New Press, 2010).  I must confess that I am...

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Episode 51: “The Politics of Tinky Winky”

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