The Divided Heart : Essays on Protestantism and the Enlightenment in America

Bringing together essays by a leading intellectual and religious historian, The Divided Heart is a collection of recent reflections, sometimes with a considerable autobiographical element, by Henry F. May on the conflict between Protestantism and the Enlightenment that runs throughout the history of American culture. Summarizing May's opinions on recent historiographical arguments, the introduction to The Divided Heart tells of his own development as a historian, major influences upon his thinking, and how his practicing assumptions grew. Covering religion, there are essays on early American history, Jonathan Edwards, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Reinhold Niebuhr, and "reflections on the uneasy relation" between religion and American intellectual history. Relating to the Enlightenment, there are essays on the Constitution and the "Jeffersonian Moment." Suggesting a new and interdisciplinary approach, May's last essay deals with the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of Romanticism, an area of history with which he has never before dealt.

Bringing together essays by a leading intellectual and religious historian, The Divided Heart is a collection of recent reflections, sometimes with a considerable autobiographical element, by Henry F. May on the conflict between Protestantism and the Enlightenment that runs throughout the history of American culture. Summarizing May's opinions on recent historiographical arguments, the introduction to The Divided Heart tells of his own development as a historian, major influences upon his thinking, and how his practicing assumptions grew. Covering religion, there are essays on early American history, Jonathan Edwards, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Reinhold Niebuhr, and reflections on the uneasy relation between religion and American intellectual history. Relating to the Enlightenment, there are essays on the Constitution and the Jeffersonian Moment. Suggesting a new and interdisciplinary approach, May's last essay deals with the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of Romanticism, an area of history with which he has never before dealt.

Bringing together essays by a leading American intellectual and religious historian, The Divided Heart is a collection of recent reflections, sometimes with a considerable autobiographical element, by Henry F. May on the conflict between Protestantism and the Enlightenment that runs throughout the history of American culture. Summarizing May's opinions on recent historiographical arguments, the introduction to The Divided Heart tells of his own development as a historian, major influences upon his thinking, and how his practicing assumptions grew. Covering religion, there are essays on early American history, Jonathan Edwards, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Reinhold Niebuhr, and reflections on the "uneasy relation" between religion and American intellectual history. Relating to the Enlightenment, there are essays on the Constitution and the "Jeffersonian Moment." Suggesting a new and interdisciplinary approach, May's last essay deals with the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of Romanticism, an area of history with which he has never before dealt. Contents......Page 10 Introduction: Faith in History......Page 14 I: Allegiances......Page 26 1. Religion and American Intellectual History, 1945–1985: Reflections on an Uneasy Relationship......Page 28 2. The Rough Road to Virgin Land......Page 44 3. The Prophet and the Establishment......Page 72 II: Edwards and After......Page 84 4. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Oldtown Folks: An Introduction......Page 86 5. Jonathan Edwards and America......Page 136 III: The Enlightenment and After......Page 156 6. The Constitution and the Enlightened Consensus......Page 158 7. The Jeffersonian Moment......Page 172 8. After the Enlightenment: A Prospectus......Page 190 Notes......Page 208 C......Page 226 H......Page 227 M......Page 228 S......Page 229 W......Page 230