Murphy, Andrew R. Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 232 pages. ISBN: 978-0-19-532128-9.

Most Americans do not know the word jeremiad, but it is a familiar term to scholars of early American religion. To them the term indicates a type of sermon preached in seventeenth-century New England. These sermons lamented that New England had broken the covenant with God made by its founders. If New England continued its decline, God’s judgment loomed, but if New England repented, then it would receive God’s blessing. But even if most Americans do not know the term jeremiad, they are probably familiar with the genre. In sermons or political speeches, they have heard the idea that America is a Christian nation that has disobeyed God and so faces divine judgment. The old genre of the jeremiad is still very much a part of American discourse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lincoln and I want to elicit our readers’ philosophies of history. To that end, I’ve compiled some questions about historical philosophy that Lincoln and I have attempted to deal with in our previous posts. We want to know how you think about history. A philosophy of history is always in flux and we hope to refine ours through interacting with your personal historical philosophy.

What do you disagree with us about? [To get things started, I take issue with Lincoln’s contention that peoples’ “consequential choices are the stuff of history.” I believe that everything from earthquakes (the tremors themselves, not just the effects on human beings) to the courses of the stars are a part of history.]

What is the purpose of history?

Is there a “grand narrative” of history? If you believe there is, what is it? How does your theology, especially your eschatology, influence your philosophy of history?

Can we know God’s hand in history? Can we comprehend divine intervention in history? Should history be used to reward virtue and punish vice?

Do our choices influence history or is the course of history predetermined? What is the cause of historical events? How does free will (or its absence) impact your philosophy of history?

Ought we to make moral judgments about the past? Can we escape making moral judgments about the past?

“What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?” —Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics, vii.

In sketching a Christian philosophy of history, I see two essential questions. The first is what is the goal of a Christian historian? Paul has admirably answered that question in the first part of his philosophy of history. A Christian historian worships God through the right use of intellect. My purpose is to answer the second question: how does a Christian historian go about integrating his intellectual pursuit with his faith in Christ?

Read the rest of this entry »