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INTRODUCTION

AMERICA: THE COVENANT NATION

CONTENTS


    The parable of the four generations

   The purpose and nature of this study

    The personal background to this study

    On being a covenant people

    The student syllabus
NOTE:

The material from this entire section, America – The Covenant Nation, comes from my two-volume printed series of the same name, America – The Covenant Nation, published in 2021 (minus all the pictures posted here!).


More about these books can be found at my other website, America - The Covenant Nation.
The textual material on the page below is drawn directly from my work,
America - The Covenant Nation © 2021, Volume One, pages 1-18

THE PARABLE OF THE FOUR GENERATIONS

The Rise and Fall of Societies

History teaches us a key lesson: that societies rise – and then fall – sometimes in short order (just a few generations), sometimes slowly over the centuries.  But they all do at some point come and then go as strong, viable societies. 

For instance, ancient Athens rose to glory and then fell in the span of only a mere century.  It did linger on after its fall, but no longer a great society.  Rome however managed to hang on for centuries between its gradual rise beginning in the 300s and 200s B.C.1 (or earlier if you take into account its very first steps) and its fall, first in the Western half of the Empire during the 400s A.D. (thanks to the Germans) and then in its Eastern territories in the 600s A.D. (thanks to the Arab Muslims) – although it did hang on as a small Eastern power all the way up to the mid–1400s.
In the 20th Century alone, we watched the decline and disappearance of the once-great British, French, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese Empires.  And we saw both the 70-year dramatic rise and then dismal collapse of the Soviet Russian Empire.  And we got to watch Hitler's "1000-Year Reich" and the great Japanese Empire rise to enormous greatness and then to full collapse – all in a mere dozen years.
And we got to watch America rise from being a secondary power to the status of being the world's sole superpower in the course of the 20th Century.
Thus arises the question: for how long will America hang on to its greatness?  Will America be like ancient Athens, holding on to greatness for only about a century (such as what happened also to the great Habsburg Spanish Empire which dominated the entire 1500s)?  Or will it manage to carry on over the centuries, like the great Roman Empire?
Back in the early 1970s, when I first took up university teaching, that question was put to me by my students, naturally concerned about the direction toward which their American society seemed to be headed.  I answered with a story illustrating a society's natural dynamics of growth and decline, a story explaining how strong leadership, inspiring a disciplined social-moral order, could establish and build to great strength an entire society.  But the story also illustrated how corrupt or just morally lazy leadership, which seems to come along inevitably with time, would also confuse and severely damage that society and its social-moral order.  I called this story the "Parable of the Four Generations."  Here is a brief summarization of the parable.
 
The Parable

The First Generation.  A society typically begins under the mastery or leadership of a very strong-willed individual, not infrequently a young man who climbs out of very tough – even brutal – circumstances.  And in overcoming those circumstances he achieves a self-discipline in the face of dangerous challenges, one which so strongly impresses a gathering circle of young warriors that he is able to turn this group into a similarly disciplined band of conquerors.  The warrior-leader is very generous to those who would follow his lead bravely, against even the most dangerous of challenges. But he could also be equally unforgiving of those who would fail to live up to his very precise warrior code or his high expectations of a very brave performance in carrying out the warrior duties of those who would dare join him.  Washington and Hamilton exemplify this type of individual.

But what drives this leader is not just some hunger to force others under his direction for the sheer joy of it.  That can come to certain people as a big ego-high.  But usually that same urge will blind and ultimately destroy such wannabe leaders.  No, what drives this First-Generation leader is vision, a higher vision or sense of call that comes from some source other than the approval of the immediate world around him.  It comes typically from a sense, even at a very early age, that Heaven itself has a special commission for this young man to build a society that will serve the greater will of Heaven, God, Providence, Allah, Zeus, Tian – or whatever name is given to this Higher Power.  It is the ability of our young warrior to keep his eyes on this higher call that allows him not to fall victim to the flattery of those who would try to use him for their own personal gain.  He is immune to such human willfulness.  Thus such vision with its call to bold action as well as an unshakable resolve to keep himself and others under the inflexible moral discipline required to see that vision come to reality together make him the powerful leader that he is.

He also occupies a special place in history because his arrival on the social scene is timed with developments well beyond his own political-social designs.  In fact, he himself is no such political-social designer.  Instead, he is an individual fully capable of taking on fearsome challenges immediately in front of him as they arise to confront him on an almost daily basis.  He does not design life, like some lofty intellectual working at a desk and living in a bubble of beautiful ideals and wonderfully rational plans designed to achieve utopia.  His world is tough, messy, and unpredictable.  But he is fearsomely brave as he pursues this political-social call placed on him by the very power of Heaven.  He resolves simply to keep moving forward, even in the face of the most discouraging circumstances.

And thus it is that this man of valor is able to inspire others to join him on this path of overcoming – and ultimately this path of social conquest.  He is thus able through sheer doggedness to produce social greatness.2

And in our parable, that conquest would include even the great civilization just over the next mountain range, a civilization that is in deep trouble because it is no longer led by such powerful leaders as our First-Generation founder.  This once-great civilization has fallen into deep moral decay, one that inevitably comes along with the rise to power of the Fourth and final Generation.  This civilization finds itself caught at this point in time in the throes of social collapse.  It is ripe for conquest by some kind of rising power outside itself.  And that is where the First-Generation leader finds himself and his men headed in history.

Timing is, of course, also key to success in history.

The Second Generation.  The son (the Second Generation) of the original founder-warrior will also have grown up in tough circumstances, though only because of the disciplined social environment established by his father, not because of a threatening political world immediately around him.  By the time he is a rising young man, much of that has already been cleared away by his father's early successes. However, the father's grand vision, in which he understood rather clearly the ultimate destiny of his small but growing society, has had the father over the years preparing his son to take up the responsibilities that one day will be passed on to him.  The First-Generation father therefore has had his Second-Generation son train and join him in battle, learning the responsibilities of leadership.  There is, after all, a world to be conquered by both of them, father and son.

And that conquered world one day will need to be administered by a competent ruler. But it will fall to the son, not the father, to be just that individual.  Anticipating this, the father perhaps will have, early along the way, sent his son off to live and study for a number of years within that larger civilization, one that is destined to be ruled by his own rising dynasty.  This certainly occurred in the case of Philip II of Macedon, when he sent his son Alexander off to Greece to study under Aristotle.  As a result, the son will know and understand the ways of the larger world that one day will be his responsibility to rule.

The son will also know of the Heavenly Commission upon which his society was originally founded by his father, though perhaps only secondarily, through what his father has told him about it.  The son will respect that Higher Power and will take its ruling principles into account in his governance.  But he will also be shaped by his knowledge of the political codes and moral rules of the society he is about to inherit, its wise counselors, its civilized ways.  All of this will come as a blend of the son's own vision and self-discipline. He is more the person of Reason, like the civilized world he has come to know, than of dangerous risk-taking, something required by the social conditions his father grew up in.

Typically, the era of the Second Generation will be understood by historians as constituting the political height of that society or civilization, the one created or restored through the conquering efforts of the First Generation, and the considerable administrative talents of the Second Generation.  John Adams would exemplify that particular generation.3

The Third Generation.  The grandson/son of the two preceding generations will be personally familiar only with life as lived within the palace that he was raised in.  He will know well the stories of the great valor of his grandfather, although such knowledge will have more the nature of folklore than reality to him.  He will see and experience directly the blessings of his father's well-administered social-legal order.  It certainly will have already benefited the son greatly.  And thus he will be entirely devoted to the idea of completing and securing the full development of that perfect social order.  He will spend his time in his royal chambers working on that perfect design, working closely with his highly-educated advisors on the specifics of a proposed legal order he wants them to put into place by royal decree.

Along with the proposed legal order, his own vision typically will include the perfecting or beautifying of the visible features of the civilization he has inherited: the beautification of the palace dwellings; the building of magnificent homes for his huge administrative staff; the upgrading of the public places such as the all-important central market and the houses of worship; the development of public parks and places of leisure (mostly for the privileged urban classes).  Jefferson would exemplify that particular generation.4


Of course all of this will come at a great cost, especially to those least able to fend off the tax collectors, who fleece the poorer classes to pay for these extravagant projects, projects which will bring little or no benefit to the lower social orders. Restlessness and even occasional revolt will from time to time upset this utopian social order that Generation Three is attempting to put into place.  And our ruler will be uncomprehending as to why such turmoil is accompanying his efforts to perfect his people's world.  But that is because he lives largely in a social-intellectual-moral bubble of his own making.  He is far removed from the hard realities of the larger world around him.  Most importantly, he has lost touch with those he is expected to govern. He no longer relates to this people as a moral compass or spiritual guide for them. Trouble brews.

The Fourth Generation.  Having grown up in a world of total privilege, surrounded by flattering supporters who were looking to be brought into that world of privilege, our Fourth-Generation leader will have lost touch completely with the hard realities facing his society, the challenges that as society's governing authority he is expected to address and solve.  But he lives in a world of massive disinformation (who would dare to contradict the presuppositions of the Great Ruler).  He is clueless as to his responsibilities.

Not only is there a total loss of dedicated discipline to his governance, there is not even any particular direction to it.  He is a person of no particular vision, except to hang on to all the entitlements coming his way as Great Ruler.  He is bored, listless, and dangerous, not only to those immediately around him but also to himself.  And most tragically, he is also a great danger to the society he is expected to lead.  He indulges in every known diversion possible, being able (he believes) to afford them all: gambling, drugs and alcohol, sex (in various ways), wild spending sprees (for nothing in particular), cruel games (including the torture of individuals he does not particularly care for), and so on.

And as for the general moral order of the society he is supposed to be leading, it now finds itself in a state of collapse.  Hungry gangs wander the streets, violating persons and property as they see the urge to do so.  It is dangerous for women and children to go to market for the day's needs, or even to enter the streets at all.  Extortionists come around to exact the price of protection on the defenseless people.  The social order is simply collapsing.  And as for the people's affection for their government, its Great Ruler in particular, there is none.  They wish him dead, and would support anyone inclined to cause that to happen.

And that brings us back to the First Generation, for that is where such help is to come from.  And thus the cycle begins all over again.

What the Parable Seems to Imply About America Today

So, in answering my students' question back in those years of the early 1970s as to where America found itself in this matter of a society's rise and fall, I answered "somewhere in the middle of the Third Generation."  We had been trying to perfect the structuring of American society through Johnson's Great Society programming and building a strong South Vietnamese society able to ward off the aggressions of Communism.  But instead of achieving wonderful social progress on both fronts, Johnson's programs seemed to have brought to America only shocking social chaos, both at home and abroad.  And that chaos merely continued through the 1970s.  At times it felt as if we were even heading into the Fourth Generation.

Later, during the 1980s and 1990s, we actually seemed to step back into a profile more characteristic of the Second Generation.  But with the beginning of the 21st century we also seemed to skip ahead, down the road heading America toward the Fourth Generation.  Indeed, today I would have to say that we stand somewhere in the early stages of the Fourth Generation.  We have so thoroughly "Changed" the fundamental moral structure of American society, that America – and Americans – are suffering from a major identity crisis, one characteristic of the Fourth Generation.


1B.C. – "Before Christ." "Since Christ" is designated as A.D. – "Anno Domini" (Latin for "Year of our Lord").

2Certainly both Washington and Lincoln are perfect examples of this kind of leadership.  So also was the largely unacknowledged true Founder of Anglo-American society (at least the New England version), John Winthrop.  And this category should also include Hamilton, a fiercely brave soul who took up the unloved responsibility of getting the new Republic started up on very strong financial foundations.  These people carried America forward in its development through the most challenging of times.

3Both Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy would certainly fall somewhere in this category, in the way they worked to maintain and utilize American social power in the face of huge social challenges.  Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr. probably also belong in this category.

4American examples of this would be Jefferson, Wilson, and Johnson (LBJ), all of whom sought to perfect American society (and even the world in some cases) through highly-planned or rational social redesign.  Franklin Roosevelt, Carter and Clinton seemed to have started out this way, but thankfully were forced back into a Second-Generation profile when hard Reality struck!





Americans seem to find it highly entertaining to tear at each other at home – wielding "Reason" like a club to crush political adversaries. The traditional moral grounding which for generations forced political debate to stay within certain boundaries has disappeared.  All combatants today are so convinced of their own righteousness (who needs rules or boundaries when you are certain that you alone are the only one who is Right in these matters!) that Washington politics has become totally uncivil.  This is definitely Fourth Generation behavior.
With China on the rise in its effort to become the superpower of the 21st century, this is not a good condition for America to find itself in.  America seems to be losing serious influence abroad (it was a very strong America, after all, that put in place the shape and direction that moved much of the larger world after World War Two).  But the loss of power abroad means also the loss of political freedom at home. A weakened America does not need to be "protected' or "guided" by a newly dominant China.


Xi Jinping

America needs help, much help, from some source other than its own self-inflicted wisdom or Reason that now pretends to direct it.  It is going to need the very power that long ago put the foundations of this great society in place.  It is going to need the very power of Heaven, of God himself, to get America back on track as a powerful society.  Literally, it needs to restore the Covenant or contractual relationship with God, one that was agreed to four centuries ago (the early 1600s) by the Puritan Founding Fathers.  In that Covenant, those leaders agreed to put this country's fate in the hands of God and promised that they would follow God's – not man's – counsel. What they were doing there in New England was totally unprecedented, very risky, and they were going to need God's help in order to succeed in this rather experimental social venture.  And succeed they did.

But as with all things in human nature (as our parable points out), success led American society down the road of moral drift – more than once, as it turned out! But God remembered the Puritans' agreement with him and honored the terms of the Covenant.  In sending great spiritual revivals or "Awakenings" to America at various points in the county's history, he got America back on course, moving ahead once again.  In each of these instances, that Godly relationship – not human social planning – got Americans ready to face some very major social crises that loomed before them.  And thanks to God's moral- spiritual renewal of America, America came through these crises stronger than ever.

Now here we are today morally confused and horribly undirected.  Worse, we seem to want to fight any efforts to get us up and running again as a truly great society.  We need Godly, not more Rationally human, guidance again ... badly.

Thus, recovering that Covenant or contractual relationship with God is a matter of great urgency today.

THE PURPOSE AND NATURE OF THIS STUDY

 
The Two Americas

Another central and closely-related theme of this study is the fact that from its founding onward, there have always been "Two Americas."   One such America always finds the Americans themselves focused entirely on their own individual or personal success achieved through Rationally-designed self-advancement, calculated to help the individual acquire superior social status, visible clearly to the world in terms of the material display (housing, cars, clothing, etc.) that is supposed to accompany such personal success.  This America finds itself in the category of the Third Generation, which unfortunately slides so easily into a Fourth-Generation situation.5

The other America, however, is characterized by a willingness of Americans to take on huge social challenges as a single people, working closely together – even sacrificially – to bring their beloved society to success.   Like the First Generation, they have also well-understood that what truly mattered in life was a very personal relationship with God, one that enabled them to take on unpredictable and thus fearsome challenges in the full confidence that God, not some lofty program of grand Humanist design, would guide and strengthen them through those tough times.  

This dual pattern has appeared repeatedly: Americans rather naturally wanting to drift down the self-focused "Rational" Secular-Humanist-Materialist path, and then God through various Awakenings bringing them together back on the course that as a Covenant People they had originally set out on.

Christian Spiritual Perspective – Coupled with Strong Political Realism

This study covers all the typical subjects of an in-depth American political history, but with extensive social-cultural analysis offered by way of a mixture of a strong political Realism and an equally strong Christian cultural and spiritual perspective. The study also includes a closer look at a number of individuals, leaders who strongly shaped America's social-moral culture as the country developed.  And it always keeps an eye on the changing balance culture-wise between Human Reason (Humanism or Secularism) and Christian morality and spirituality as America moved from one age to the next

This is a study shaped greatly out of a classroom effort to help young Americans come to know personally the narrative of their own society (and eventually also young international students to better understand the same dynamics for their society as well), to prepare them to enter a world in which one day they will have to make choices, both personal and social.

This narrative was designed to help them gain needed political-moral perspective, to help them rise out of the confusion that has been left for them to deal with by previous generations.  They have the huge social responsibility of becoming a wise generation.  After all, America is supposed to be a democracy, dependent on the wisdom of all its people and not just on the guidance of a self-proclaimed body of the enlightened few located off in some distant political center.   Thus it is that this study is intended for the classroom, at all levels of young adult learning.

Actually, this study originated a quarter of a century ago as part of an adult social studies program and therefore is also directed toward a fairly adult general audience.  It is written at a college level (even grad school level) in terms of vocabulary and social commentary.  However, I once asked my high-school students if they had trouble with the vocabulary.  They assured me that the meaning of what they were reading was always very clear, even if occasionally above their general vocabulary level!
 5This is the situation America found itself in during the Roaring Twenties (1920s), materially rich and spiritually impoverished – until the Great Depression of the 1930s brought America out of this moral funk and got the country spiritually ready to take on the huge challenge of World War Two soon facing them.
THE PERSONAL BACKGROUND TO THIS STUDY6



Ever the political analyst.    I am by training and experience not really an historian but instead a political scientist – by very strong instinct.  I have long used history as my laboratory in developing an understanding of social and political dynamics.  But I am also a dedicated Christian ... who had to come to that Christian faith and understanding through a long process of searching for the Truth in life.  Actually, it turned out that Truth found me!  From that moment on, I have been trying to flesh out the details of that Truth. This study is a part – a big part – of that effort.

Early in my career I was a university professor (international politics) and a consulting political-economic analyst for corporate America.  My journey started back in the 1960s at Georgetown University (1963–1968), when I did my master's thesis on South Africa and my doctoral dissertation on Belgium, both concerning the subject of multiculturalism – having become intrigued with the subject because of my junior year (1961–1962) spent at the University of Geneva in multicultural Switzerland.  The dynamics by which I came to predict (as it turned out, correctly) that South Africa in the mid–1960s was destined to go down a path different from the one being followed elsewhere in Africa (South African Whites would hold on to their power, at least for another generation) pushed me to dig more deeply into the matter of why societies go this way rather than that.  And I arrived in Belgium (1969) just as it was beginning to find relief from the long struggle between the French and Dutch-speaking halves of the country – by instead moving to serve the higher goal of becoming the center of a rising New Europe.  I was impressed by how societies that find a higher purpose to their very existence can gain great strength in the process.

University professor.  As a young political science professor at the University of South Alabama (1971–1986), I had the opportunity to broaden this interest considerably, teaching over the next fifteen years not only American diplomacy and international relations, but also regional political dynamics (courses offered annually on Europe, the Middle East and Asia) by which I began to understand how different societies see things differently and thus approach life differently.  But I also saw a pattern amidst all these differences and, early on, developed the Four-Generation parable to explain this dynamic.  This interest in social dynamics led me ultimately to set up my own consultancy business in political-risk research, working with banks and corporations located across the American South, and ultimately to offer a special contract course on political risk analysis staged at the London School of Economics. Thus it was that I put to work my instinct for Realpolitik.   This study certainly reflects that same instinct.

The cynical Realist.   However, something was missing in all this political Realism.  I was quite understanding of the dynamic of the rise and fall of societies – and was not very happy watching American society going through this same dynamic in the 1970s.   Sadly, in all this insight, life was showing me no good exit from the cynicism that hard Reality left me with.  I was a most unwilling member of a latter-day Lost Generation, having become greatly disillusioned with life.

Encounters with God through contemporary examples of Jesus Christ.  Then in 1983-1984 – in the midst of immense spiritual turmoil – God began to reveal himself to me step by step, eventually put clearly before me in the form of a young Catholic priest I worked with in El Salvador (1985–1986), a Christ-like figure loving and encouraging a small community of campesinos being shot up in a savage civil war going on in that country; then soon after that, an Episcopal priest who performed the same act of loving support to throwaway kids living under the boardwalk at Pensacola Beach; and similarly, a local plumber who went full-time into a deeply caring Christian ministry to the homeless in downtown Mobile.   Coming to know and work with these individuals opened up a whole new world for me.

While still teaching full-time, I found myself undertaking part-time both regional prison ministry and Mobile jail and street ministry, fascinated to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought wonderful light into the human darkness, even when that darkness seemed very dark indeed.  As a Realist, I knew quite well that this was a darkness that no human program, no government program, no amount of Human Reason, was going to bring light to.  For a natural cynic, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a huge revelation.

Taking up the call.   In fact, this personal Awakening was so huge that it caused me in 1986 to drop my professorship, tenure, status, and all, and head off to seminary in Princeton, simply to devote myself full-time to deepening my understanding of the Christian social dynamic.  Actually, full-time was even fuller because I almost immediately started up a daily morning street ministry nearby among Trenton's homeless – breakfast, bible study, and just wide-ranging discussion.   I would continue my hands-on work there, even for eighteen months after having completed my studies at the seminary – working in construction while awaiting a call!

6This personal story of mine has been recently published (September 2021) as The Spiritual Pilgrim – A Journey from Cynical Realism to a "Born Again" Christian Faith. Its various 250-page print versions can be found online under my name at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, as an ebook at kobo.com, or as an audiobook at audible.com.  Here too, more information about this book (and how it can be purchased) can also be found on my website thecovenantnation.com. But you will also discover a lot of coverage of all this on this website: The Spiritual Pilgrim.


Something of a side-note on my Princeton days but illustrative of where I come from in life was when in 1989, just a few days prior to the time I was due to graduate, my thesis mentor, a youngish professor at the seminary, finally reported my grade (which I myself had not yet seen) to the Registrar.   It was an F!   This was his personal assessment of my 260-page senior thesis, which was assembled after I had spent two months in South Africa the previous summer interviewing widely leaders of the various racial groups that made up the South African Society.

My thesis concluded that there was going to be no violent revolution that would bring Black power into full play.  But instead, an amazing spirit of racial reconciliation was going to achieve the same objective.  This fervently Liberal professor, who actually knew very little about South African society and its dynamics, concluded that I had been taken in by South African Fascist deception, and thus I was not worthy of the Princeton stamp of approval.  He was so wrapped up in his bubble-world of Liberal Reasoning that Reality found itself beyond his reach.  Anyway, as it turned out, I had so many extra academic credits accumulated that much to his surprise I was able to participate in the seminary's graduation ceremonies three days later – thanks to a sympathetic Registrar who immediately refashioned for me my major from Christian Ethics to Biblical Studies.   And when I ran into him sometime later, when things were unfolding in South Africa just as I had predicted, he was not interested in following up on the subject!

The discovery of the power of historical narrative.  In any case, one of the great wonders that hit me in those seminary years came in acquainting myself with the power of the Judeo-Christian narrative, especially in the original languages of Greek and Hebrew!   It was at this point that the idea of social narrative itself took on special meaning, even supreme importance, to me.

This arose from understanding the grandness of what the ancient Jews had achieved when they were dragged off to captivity in Babylon and were no longer permitted to practice their familiar pattern of worship, up until then mostly animal sacrifices performed at the Temple by temple priests.  Unable to build a temple for themselves in Babylon, they instead simply reinvented themselves around their own narrative!  They were a people anciently covenanted to God to be precisely his people – and as such had a marvelous story to tell about what that had meant to them over many generations.  This story, this narrative itself thus became the focus of their devotion to and worship of their God Yahweh and their identity as a distinct people.

Thus it was that these ancient Jews literally created Judaism:  rabbis or teachers instead of priests to lead them in their devotional life, rabbis who collected and then issued commentaries (sermons) on the gathered narrative at weekly gatherings at synagogues found scattered among the Jewish population in Babylon.  It was thus the narrative itself, not temple sacrifices, that at this point defined the Jewish people and their special relationship with God.   This was unique at the time.   It was awesome.

And I realized how importantly Christianity was built on this same tradition of the narrative, not only including the Jewish narrative (the Old Testament) but also the story of Jesus's ministry (the Gospels) and the counsel (the Epistles or Letters) of the early saints, in particular the counsel of Paul found in the New Testament.  For three centuries, the Bible became brutally-persecuted Christianity's early social-moral foundation … before the Roman authorities reversed course and adopted Christianity as the Empire's own moral underpinning.

But in reversing this course, Christianity ultimately became "Romanized."

I also understood the struggles of the Christian Reformers of the 1500s and 1600s in their effort to get Christianity back to its original foundations based on the Biblical narrative – and not on just the Romanized ecclesiastical or hierarchical Church-based, legalistic, political-social tradition.  I well understood how this inspired the Puritans who came to America in the early 1600s to put into operation a society that would actually try to live as close to the counsel of that same Biblical narrative as possible. These Puritans were well equipped with highly educated teacher-preachers (like the Jewish rabbis) to keep them aligned with this Biblical counsel – through the weekly holding of Sunday gatherings where sermons inspired by this Biblical narrative were presented on an on-going basis.


While in seminary I had no intentions of becoming a pastor.  But pastoring is ultimately the task God called me to in my move into my second career.  Over a twelve-year period, three Presbyterian churches were to hear, from the pulpit and through special social-studies courses, sections of that narrative, mixed in with my tendency to move to contemporary social-cultural analysis in the process.  I even in the 1990s started up my own website (newgeneva.org, later refashioned as spiritualpilgrim.net).

New Geneva.  In my last years of pastoring I put together a team of myself and four other Presbyterian pastors and a Presbyterian businessman and for two years worked on developing a New Geneva study center to retread Presbyterian pastors and elders, naturally around both the Biblical and the Christian West's historical narrative.  But with seventeen acres in hand, the project awakened a prestigious Presbyterian Church nearby, which viewed the project as possibly resulting in a sheep raid on their flock and, wielding enormous political pressure in the Presbytery, had us shut down.

The King's Academy.  Thus it was at this point that God led me to take a position (September 2001) at a new and quite humble but very spiritually and intellectually rigorous Christian school, The King's Academy (TKA).   Quite ironically, in my first week at the school I stressed to my students that the days of Fortress America were gone.  The two oceans no longer served to protect us from the affairs of the rest of the world.  We no longer had an option as to whether we wanted to get involved with events abroad or not.  It was our destiny to play a huge role in the world's development, whether we wanted to or not.  Also, I stressed that the world now in this day and age would be coming to us – and at us – on its own terms, and we needed to be prepared physically, emotionally and spiritually to face such challenges.  In fact, I mentioned in several of my classes how the Islamic jihadists wanted to take down the New York City Twin Towers.  Tragically, my point struck home to my students even more deeply, when the very next day the Twin Towers did indeed come down.

I don't know what made me pick that example (I was of course aware of the former attempt in 1993).  But that's how doing God's work often goes.  That certainly got my students' attention concerning the importance of this learning project we would be working on together.   Nonetheless, this was not a happy thing for me.  Two of the people who died in the Towers were former parishioners of mine when I served as a pastor in Northern New Jersey.  One in fact, the church treasurer, I was rather close to.

Anyway, from this academic base camp at The King's Academy I began to expand considerably my teaching material, which bit by bit made its way to my website, including Western cultural history, comparative world cultures, biographical sketches, French language development, classic literature, even art history!  And this is the material (the American history portion anyway) that would bring me today to produce this narrative that appears before you.
About This Study

As already indicated, this has been a long-researched project that was gradual, changing, and always developing here and there over a twenty to thirty-year period, some of that during a time of pastoral duties, though most of it while teaching my high school students at The King's Academy.  It was done with the understanding that this is political science and Christian philosophy as much as historical fact.  But in any case, the facts are extensively researched, and abundantly detailed.

Ultimately this particular study is about America and its covenantal relationship with God, offered America by God through the willingness of America's early leaders to follow Jesus as the Lord and life of this strange venture, this founding of a very new and very unique society.  These Founders would be commissioned not only to help all members of this new society to live up to the terms of this Covenant (which the people themselves also agreed to honor) but also to show through the American example the way to such a divine relationship to the rest of the world.  In accepting this commission, it was understood by those early Americans that this new society was to dedicate itself to living to great purpose – to be a City on a Hill, a Light to the Nations.

This covenant relationship with God has certainly been one with its ups and downs. But it was always this relationship that clearly moved America forward, eventually to become the superpower of the 20th century.  But sadly today, an overly comfortable and smugly self-satisfied America has again drifted away from this relationship, perhaps further than it had in any of its earlier wanderings.  We have now raised at least two – and are working on a third – generation that in general knows very little, or even nothing, of this Covenant.

America needs to be awakened to both the blessings and the adversities of life, shown the wisdom of those who went before us, facing most of the same problems – in different packages, but fundamentally the same issues then as now.  There is much to be learned in once again hearing the American narrative.  There is much that must be learned, or social drift into an ever-darker world will be the foreordained outcome.

Even the Puritans – or better, especially the Puritans – who started out this American narrative, were aware of this challenge.  And that is why we start with them.


For more on this personal journey, go to The Spiritual Pilgrim.

ON BEING A COVENANT PEOPLE

John Winthrop and the Puritan Covenant

In mid-June of the year 1630 John Winthrop, Governor of the new Massachusetts Bay Company called together the first group of some twenty thousand Puritans who would be heading to New England over the next dozen years.  This initial group of some 1,000 Puritans were about to embark on a number of ships, including his flagship the Arbella ... their destination being Massachusetts – where they would soon begin their new mission in New England.

As Puritans it had long been their mission to purify the Church of England of its corrupt medieval ways and bring it as close as possible to strict Biblical standards in its operations ... exactly as God himself had commanded.  But finally Winthrop's group of Puritans had come to the conclusion that hope of reform was futile ... and to the decision to take their mission to America.  Life under King Charles and Archbishop Laud had become impossible – even highly dangerous – for those who wished to continue the cause of Christian reform in England.

But even this retreat to America was highly dangerous.  The general record of English settlements in America was horrifying ... hunger, sickness and ultimately death overtaking more than half of those who attempted the venture.  Yet they were willing to face that risk, so great was their determination to succeed in this project of theirs.

John Winthrop addressing some of the Puritans leaving for America

It is important to note that this move to America was more than just a gamble of the English to secure for themselves a better life than the one they had in England.  Most all of them came from comfortable middle class homes ... and had they been less vocal about their concern for reform of the Church of England they could have quietly lived their lives out in relative ease.  No, something else was going on here ... something that had made them the reformers that they were.  They truly believed in their religious cause ... so much so that their efforts at reform had brought them enormous problems with the English Church and Crown. 

At least now in America they would be free to see these reforms reshape their world, both religious and social.  And that, in sum, is why they came ... by the thousands.

It is hard today even to begin to imagine the thoughts that motivated these English settlers.  Religious idealism is such a secondary matter (if even that) in modern America, where material rewards count so heavily and life is measured in terms of a person’s professional success.  Yet as hard-driven as Americans are today in pursuit of the American materialistic dream, so too the Puritans were hard-driven in pursuit of their religious dream: a life lived in close companionship with God – and ultimately, as Christ himself stressed, in close companionship with each other.

Thus just as his shipmates were about to embark on the Arbella, Winthrop addressed them with one of the most famous sermons ever preached, a sermon entitled by Winthrop himself, A Modell of Christian Charity.  Sounding very much like Moses addressing the ancient Israelites just as they were about to enter the Promised Land, Winthrop challenged his fellow Puritans:

... Thus stands the cause between God and us.  We are entered into covenant with Him for this work.  We have taken out a commission.

It was well understood by all that a "Covenant" meant there were specific terms or obligations that had to be met, something like a legal contract drawn up between themselves and God.  They would serve God ... and if they were faithful in that service, then God would also faithfully serve them.  With God’s help they would prosper ... in a most miraculous way.

This is what they understood this whole venture was all about ... to prove not only to themselves but also to the wider world the notion that man could live most nobly, most successfully – not in pursuit of personal gain, wealth and superior social status ... but instead in pursuit of a closer relationship with the God who presided over all doings in his Creation. 

But as with all contracts there was the down side ... relating to failure to keep the Covenant with God.  Failure would indeed bring down on them God’s wrath.  Winthrop warned them:

... if we shall neglect the observation of these articles ... [and] embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

Additionally, the Covenant included a second aspect to it, not just the one linking these Christian souls to Almighty God.  The Covenant also required a similar bond uniting them in affection and devotion to each other.  Winthrop explains:

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck [of God’s wrath], and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man.  We must entertain each other in brotherly affection.  We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body.  ...

Then Winthrop went on to remind his fellow Puritans that this venture was something of much greater importance than merely their own success as a colony ... for God had entered into this Covenant with these Puritan settlers as a demonstration or model of how all people should live.  Whether this venture succeeded or failed would by God’s own intent come to be a matter of great importance to all the world ... which would take careful note of exactly how this Covenant life in America worked out for everyone.  Winthrop stated:

We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "may the Lord make it like that of New England."  For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.  The eyes of all people are upon us.  So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.

He concludes, citing Moses's admonition to Israel:

"beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil," in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it.


But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.
Therefore let us choose life, that we and our seed may live, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life and our prosperity.

And How Do Things Stand Today with That Same Covenant?

Here we are today four centuries later, indeed a highly successful society ... in terms at least of the enormous material blessing that we enjoy as Americans.  Was this divine Covenant – as Winthrop and the Puritan settlers earnestly believed it would be – the source of this success?   Or was it just luck?  Or was it simply the cleverness of the American people that brought us to such success?  This is a question of huge importance ... one that needs some serious investigation.  But it is a question hardly heard at all today outside of the tiny ghettos of struggling American churches.

Certainly the Covenant is largely forgotten today, not even mentioned in the public education of America's youth, and only seldom in the public discourse held in the halls of the national capital or in the national media.  Indeed, according to today's legal interpretation, such religion was never intended to be any part of public America, church and state supposedly having been separated by the First Amendment.  But a close reading of the First Amendment7 (which few people seem to actually bother with) reveals that the Founding Fathers intended this constitutional principle contained in the First Amendment to protect religion from regulation by the state – not for religion's public regulation (and largely exclusion) by the state.  But this is how generally Americans prefer to understand things today.  Authority in the form of the state, not God, is what Americans today believe should be the governing voice in American life.

For more on this personal journey, go to The Spiritual Pilgrim.

ON BEING A COVENANT PEOPLE

And how is that working out for us today?  Were Winthrop's reminders of the negative side of the Covenant (the curses that should fall upon the community should it turn its hearts away from God) simply idle words, spoken out of the superstition of the times?  Or indeed was this the deal, then and now?

The best way to answer this question is to take a long, hard look at the record itself, to observe what we can of America's good times and bad, its rises and declines, to see if there is any actual evidence that the Covenant was indeed all that Winthrop had declared it to be.

And thus if indeed it was just contemporary superstition and there is no real evidence in history that it played a significant role in American history, then we can get on with things (materially and professionally) and continue down the path we have been on since the 1960s when we began to let the federal state based in Washington, DC, take the lead in American life.  But if on the other hand there is strong evidence that indeed the Covenant was – and therefore still is – fully operative, we should pay close attention to Winthrop's admonitions, and begin to fear … or better yet, take corrective steps.

And so that is what motivates this work: an investigation into the question of America being a Covenant Nation.  And we will begin our investigation at the beginning, not just with Winthrop's New England but also with the royal colony of Virginia.  These two simultaneous ventures of the 1600s were themselves very revealing on this matter!

7The First Amendment, protecting the rights of Americans against an overbearing state, reads specifically:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

THE STUDENT SYLLABUS

and ... a printable PDF copy of the syllabus
for the Abridged Version:  America's Story

Working from America – The Covenant Nation
  

Questions to consider in doing the readings

 
   
1st Quarter – Origins and Early Development of the American Covenant

 
Unit 1 - pp. 1-33 (Intro and Colonial Foundations-1)

How does history show us that the moral character of a society's leadership is so important to a society's rise to greatness ... and its decline if that moral character is lost?  How is it that America itself has always been divided between two contending moral codes?  Which moral code was Winthrop seeking to see established with the settlement of New England?  Why did he refer to this moral code as a "covenant" ... and what was exactly the nature of that covenant?  Where do things seem to stand today with respect to America's moral code?

Unit 2 - pp. 33-71 (Colonial Foundations - 2)

How is it that the Virginia and New England settlements represented this same moral division?  How does Western society in general differ from the other major moral codes of the world ... such as the Hindu and Buddhist variety?  What role did ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman society play in the development of the Western social order?  How did Jesus bring a very different understanding to life ... and its general purpose?  What happened to Jesus's Christian legacy when it stopped being persecuted and finally became accepted – even "Romanized" – by Roman authorities?  How did a rising urban (city) society change the very character of the West's "medieval" social order?  How was it that Calvin took the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s even more deeply into social-moral reform than had Luther?  Why was such Protestantism considered by many to be a grave danger to Christian Europe?  What was it that the "Puritans" were attempting to achieve in terms of social reform in England?  How was "natural philosophy" (modern science) born out of a desire to be more "reasonable" about life ... and its (supposedly) rather mechanical dynamics?

In what ways were the Spanish, French and Dutch also involved in "Europeanizing" the Americas?  What was the intended purpose of the Virginia settlement ... and how was its startup?  How did Virginia tend to imitate Europe's older feudal order?  Why did Berkeley have such a problem with Bacon and his supporters?  What was "indenture" ... and  how did this open the door to widespread slavery in Virginia?

Why did English "Separatists" come to New England as "Pilgrims"?  Why did thousands of English Puritans soon join them in this venture?  Why was Winthrop so very vital to the success of this critical venture?  In what ways was New England so very different from Virginia?  How did New England have its own distinct challenges facing its survival and development ... especially in the realm of human egos?  What was the nature of the relations between the English settlers and the Indians?

Unit 3 - pp. 72-105 (Maturity)

What was the purpose and general character of the Maryland colony?  What was happening in England in the mid-1600s that would impact the development of the American colonies? What was the purpose and general character of the Carolina colony?  The Dutch New Netherland colony?  James's New York and New Jersey?  Penn's Pennsylvania?

How and why would the religious fervor of the early-to-mid 1600s both in England and in the American colonies find itself being replaced by a very Secular or Humanist belief that human reason alone (human "Enlightenment") would do a better job at directing social progress?  Where did that leave the Puritan spirit in America as it moved from the 1600s into the 1700s?

How did the "feudal order" of Virginia continue to develop in the 1700s?  What was behind the establishment of the Georgia colony?  How was it that a "Great Awakening" of the Christian spirit suddenly exploded in America in the 1730s-1750s?  Why was this historically such a significant event?

Unit 4 - pp. 106-138 (Independence)

What was America's role in the French and Indian War?  How did England's Hanoverian kings at first give America a lot of freedom to develop ... and then have all that changed under George III?  Why were the Americans so reactive?  What pushed Boston to the lead in the reaction?  What was the role of the Second Continental Congress in the conflict?  What were the key developments both in Congress and on the battlefield in the later 1770s?  Why did the British finally move their action to the American South?  How did things turn out there for the British ... especially at Yorktown?

Unit 5 - pp. 139-173 (Birth of the Republic)

What determined the Framers of the American Constitution to build on  well-established American political-moral habits, rather than on a new or "revolutionary" form of government?  Why was it necessary for Franklin to remind fellow Framers to build their work on what they all knew was God's work ... and not their own political self-interests so rationally presented (they were mostly lawyers by trade) – which was getting them nowhere?  What exactly was the form of government they came up with ... and what were the guarantees that it would work – that is, not allow power to result eventually in some kind of political tyranny?   

Unit 6 - pp. 174-209 (The Young Republic)

How and why did Washington set a key precedent in terms of the length of presidential service?  What did Hamilton do to put the dollar and the federal government on strong economic foundations?  Why did Jefferson differ politically so deeply with Washington and Hamilton … and what did he do to counter their political positions?  Why was he so completely wrong about the dynamics of the French Revolution?  How did John Adams fare as US president?  What were Jefferson's various policies and programs as US president?  What did John Marshall do as Supreme Court Chief Justice to award power to his federal court … power not specifically assigned the court by the US Constitution?  Why did America declare war against Britain in 1812 … and how did things go for America in that war?   

Unit 7 - pp. 210-247 (The Shaping of a Nation)

How was it that America ended up owning Florida?  How did Henry Clay hope to defuse the rising dispute over slavery with his "Missouri Compromise"?  What was the real meaning of the "Monroe Doctrine"?  In what ways was Andrew Jackson so very different than his predecessor as US president, John Quincy Adams?  What and why was the "Indian Removal" of the 1830s?  What was the economic panic and depression of the late 1830s all about?  What was so unique about America … according to the thinking of the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville?  What was happening that was moving America forward as a very strong industrial society?

How did rising Unitarians (and Humanists) – individuals such as Jefferson, Owen, Emerson, etc. – find themselves up against a very strong "Awakening" Christian spirit in America?  Who were the key individuals responsible for this "Second Great Awakening"?  What were some of the more unusual religious varieties birthed by this same Awakening?  How did this Awakening inspire also huge Christian missionary and educational programs?  

Unit 8 - pp. 248-273 (Expansion ... and Division)

What did O'Sullivan mean by the term "Manifest Destiny"?  How was it that Texas came to be such a big part of that expansive instinct … and what were the consequences politically for America?  How is it that Oregon, California, and other Western territories also got pulled into this American expansion?  But how did this also complicate further the growing unrest in America over the issue of slavery … and the growing North-South political-cultural division?  

Unit  9 - Review


2nd Quarter – The Gradual Rise to Greatness

Unit 1 - pp. 274-309 (War Clouds ... and Civil War-1)

Why did the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 fail horribly to resolve to the growing North-South bitterness over the slavery issue?  Why did Taney's Supreme Court Dred Scott Decision of 1857 only make the situation worse?  In what ways was Lincoln definitely not the "country bumpkin" that other, more "sophisticated," American leaders at first consider him to be?  Why did he ask his political critics to become part of his presidential cabinet?  What was it indeed that made Lincoln one of America's greatest presidents (some would even say the greatest of all!)?  Why did his election to the presidency trigger the American Civil War? 

Why was finding the right military leader such a deep challenge to Lincoln in the first years of the war?  How was it that the Battle of Gettysburg almost ended the Civil War … but ultimately didn't?  What was it that distinguished Grant from the other Union generals?  How was it that the battles in southern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia seemed to mark a turning point in the war?  

Unit 2 - pp. 309-339 (Civil War-2 ... and Recovery)

How was 1864 a time of deep Southern military setbacks … and early 1865 the end of the Confederacy?  How was the assassination of Lincoln a huge tragedy not only for the North but also for the South?  Why was Johnson unable to hold off the intense spirit of anti-South revenge coming from the Republican Radicals?  How was it that Grant proved to be not as high quality a president that he had been as a general?  How did the end of the Civil War now open up a rush westward … into the remaining Indian territories? 

Unit 3 - pp. 340-373 (The "Gilded Age" ... and Progressivism -1)

What made the "Captains of American Industry" (or "American Robber Barons," as others termed them) so incredibly wealthy?  What were the key elements of the American Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s … and how did such material development overshadow the realm of American national politics?  How did this industrial momentum continue right on into the early 20th century?  How did all this material development inspire a growing spirit of "Progressivism"?

Unit 4 - pp. 373-406 (Progressivism-2 ... and Modern Rationalism-1) 

In what key ways did Jane Addams, William Jennings Bryan, Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft have such a positive moral impact on these changing times?  But what was the impact of the rising Rationalism or Humanism of the times (reaching back even into the 1700s) on the Christian moral-spiritual legacy of both America and the larger Western world?  How did the romanticizing of this new secular spirit inspire a rising and quite militant spirit of social tribalism … or "nationalism"?  How did the very idea of deep struggle against life's adversities inspire even further this spirit of social militancy?    

Unit 5 - pp. 406-435 (Modern Rationalism-2)

In what ways was Marx a strong Humanist or Social Idealist … but one very opposed to the rising spirit of nationalism that seemed to inspire so strongly the Western world's industrial working class?  In what ways did Lenin revise Marx's "Communism" to fit the Russian social context?  How did America itself get caught up in the Humanism of the times … with its revising of the Constitution in such a way that made it more "democratic" – undercutting the checks and balances system originally built into the Constitution (originally designed to keep power from accumulating in one or other of America's several political institutions)?  How was it that Wilson exemplified this very spirit of "Democratic Humanism"?  How did this spirit finally take on the label "Liberalism" – in the sense of "liberating" people ... from what exactly?  How did Dewey and Holmes give intellectual justification for this new spirit of "Liberalism?  How did all of this impact American Christianity? 

Unit 6 - pp. 436-475 (Nationalism, Imperialism and The Great War)

How did this rising spirit of nationalism inspire deeply the global imperialism that so consumed Western society in the latter part of the 1800s?  What role did America play in this Age of Imperialism?  But how did the lack of more territory overseas to grab for nationalist purposes (most all the world had been placed under Western control or "protection" by the end of the 1800s) now force this nationalist spirit to compete in a world way too close to the European homeland itself ... mostly the neighboring lands still held by the Turkish Empire?  How did this finally push the European powers in 1914 into a pointless war (The Great War or World War One) right there in the European heartland?  Why did it simply drag on – to no great purpose – except mutual slaughter?  How did this finally bring on the Russian Revolution?  How did this in turn inspire an intellectually self-blinded Wilson to get involved in this tragic war?  What were the ultimate results for America and Europe when sheer exhaustion finally brought things to an end? 

Unit 7 - pp. 476-506 (The "Roaring Twenties")

Why do we say that things "roared" in the 1920s?  How did America seem to divide into "two Americas":  a depressed rural America … and a partying urban America?  How did all of this impact the spirit and soul of the two Americas?  What role did presidential leadership play in all of this?  How did America decide to approach the rest of the world – and its problems – in the 1920s?  Why did the dictatorships of Stalin and Mussolini seem to be a natural part of the post-war dynamic … and what exactly did their regimes represent politically?  What finally brought the urban "partying" in America to an end?  

Unit 8 - pp. 507-530 (The Great Depression - The 1930s)

What exactly did Franklin Roosevelt have in mind with his "New Deal"?  What were the immediate benefits of all his government programs?  How was this economic depression matched with a moral-spiritual depression in America?  How did the Idealism of the Humanists at first cause them to believe that they had discovered a new religion – a "Religious Humanism" – that would save America spiritually (and materially)?  But why did Roosevelt's New Deal ultimately fail to bring America out of its economic depression?  What was it exactly that finally did the job?  How did this depression impact American Christianity … and in what ways did Christian America seek to restore its broken world?

Unit 9 - Review


3rd Quarter – Cold-War America

Unit 1 - pp. 1-30 (The Dictators ... and World War Two-1)

What was the supposed appeal of the European dictators – Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini?  Why was "appeasement" by Chamberlain supposedly the correct program in dealing with these dictators?  In what ways was the Spanish Civil War a dry run on another world war?   What did America do in response to developments in China, Austria and Czechoslovakia?  Why would Stalin agree to a treaty with Germany dividing Eastern Europe between the Russian and German powers?  Why did only a "Sitzkrieg" result as a result of the Russian-German aggression?  What then were Hitler's intentions in turning his aggression westward?  Why then did he have to go East … towards Russia?  What finally brought America into the war?  How did the American conflict with the Japanese at first go in the Pacific and East Asia?  What was Gandhi's response to the new Asian dynamic?

Unit 2 - pp. 30-66 (World War Two-2 ... and a Developing Cold War)

Why was North Africa chosen as the starting point of an American-British attack against the German-Italian alliance?  Why was the action in Italy so difficult … and what happened at Anzio?  Why was the Russian stand at Stalingrad so important?  Why did the Western allies choose to move from their Normandy landing towards Paris rather than straight east towards Germany?  What happened to the effort to swing into Germany from the Dutch North?  Why did Roosevelt believe that Stalin's intentions were purely defensive – rather than strongly aggressive – in the Russian conduct of the war in the European East?

Why was Truman such a different president than Roosevelt?  What action by Truman finally ended the war with Japan?  Who ended up occupying what areas of the world as part of the post-war "occupation"?  How did it become increasingly clear that Stalin had no intentions of letting go of his grip on East Europe?  What did Truman do to help block the efforts of Stalin's Communists in Greece and Turkey … and in their attempts to take control of Western Europe? 

Unit 3 - pp. 66-99 (Cold War-2 ... and Middle America Comes of Age-1)

How did events in Czechoslovakia wake up the general American populace to the serious danger of Stalin's Communist program?  How did Truman take the lead in the West in opposing Stalin … in Yugoslavia, in Berlin, and in the creation of NATO?  How did a broader effort by America to "democratize" the world tend to throw confusion rather than peaceful development into various situations in the post-war world … starting with Dutch Indonesia?  What was the net outcome of Gandhi's (and British Prime Minister Atlee's) efforts to finish off all British authority in India?  Why did China fall into civil war at the same time?  And how did the release of the Jews that survived the German death camps mean that the Palestinians (Muslim, Christian and Jewish) were about to find their homeland under massive European Jewish invasion?  Why was the situation in French Indo-China so confusing at war's end?

How did America's Veterans (or "Vets") of the recent war now find themselves facing new social dynamics – such as a nervous labor movement, their own "Baby Boom," their post-war Christianity … but most of all, their fear of Communists (or former Communists) at home right there in America?  How also did the intervention of the Supreme Court in America's religious development turn out to be so very significant? 

Unit 4 - pp. 99-138 (Middle America Comes of Age-2)

How did political confusion at war's end in Korea lead to a bitter war between the North and South of that country … and a strong division between Truman and MacArthur as to how American actions should proceed there?  How was it that McCarthy was able to take such advantage of the Vets' fear of Communism in their country … and leave such bitterness in the hearts of the American "Progressives" or Intellectualist "Left" against the Vets?  Why would the Vets' offspring, the Baby Boomers, grow up to be so very different in their understanding of life and its dynamics than their "Middle American" Vet parents?  Why did the in-between generation of "Silents" resemble more the Vets than the younger Boomers in their social profile?  Where did American Blacks fit in this social profile?

How did Stalin's death in 1953 raise hopes of a lightening of the Russian grip and a calming of the Cold War?  How did that actually work out … in Berlin, in Iran, in Hungary?  Why were the efforts of Britain and France to hold onto their vital Suez Canal such poor timing in all this dynamic … and what were the political results for both Britain and France?  How was America's "anti-imperialist" foreign policy principle not evident in America's dealings with its Latin neighbors to the South? How was American Christianity itself undergoing significant changes at the time?

Unit 5 - pp. 139-170 (The Early 1960s)

Why was Eisenhower's advice about the dangers of growing corporatism at home not really well understood by Middle America at the time?  In what ways did Kennedy represent a new, younger spirit … one that appealed greatly to the Silent generation?  Why did this new spirit have such a small political impact in places like Africa … or in the matter of the new Berlin Wall?  Why was that then viewed by Khrushchev as merely a mark of weakness?  How did the Cuban missile crisis change that dynamic?  Why was former French Indo-China meanwhile becoming a greater problem?

How were deep social changes beginning to develop in America itself … especially in Black-White relations and in the matter of Christian traditionalism versus Secular Humanism?  What was the rising role of the Supreme Court in all of this?  Why was Congress unable to counter the Court's major political-legal initiatives undercutting Christianity's traditional social-moral role in American society?

Unit 6 - pp. 171-207 (The Later 1960s)

How did the political changeover after Kennedy's assassination change the character of American politics deeply?    What type of thinking formed the basis of Johnson's political programs?  In what ways did Johnson's Great Society programs take America down the "corporate" route that Eisenhower warned America to avoid?  How was American society itself dividing down similar lines … encouraged greatly by an alliance between now-rising Boomers and their academic mentors – who treated Middle America as a culture flawed in every respect:  race, sex, religion, lifestyle in general?  How did the federal courts jump into this dynamic?

Why was Johnson's Vietnam War such a catastrophe … and succeed only in turning the Boomers even more militantly against their Middle America?  How did all this tempt De Gaulle to try to replace American leadership in Europe with French leadership?  Where did America stand in the 1967 fight between Israel and its Arab neighbors … and in the 1968 Czech crisis … and in matters concerning Mao's China?  Why was 1968 such a horrible year at home in America itself?

Unit 7 - pp. 207-238 (The Later 1960s and Early 1970s )

How did Nixon's election fail to close the gap between Middle America and its supposedly Progressivist or Boomer-Intellectualist adversaries?  Why was Nixon's (and Kissinger's) Realpolitik so poorly understood or accepted by this Progressivist America … especially in Nixon's winding down the American disaster in Vietnam?  Why did Nixon's d tente with both the Soviets and Chinese go unappreciated by his Democratic Party or Progressivist adversaries?  In what ways did the Watergate issue give Nixon's adversaries the weapons to bring down this otherwise very popular president?  How did his Congressional adversaries even cut back Nixon's ability to restrict "pork barrel" spending by Congress and the federal bureaucracy?  How did the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973 test Nixon-Kissinger's Realpolitik?  How did Congress's collapse of the Nixon presidency also then lead to the murderous collapse of the political systems of both South Vietnam and Cambodia?  Why did Congress fail to understand any of this?

Unit 8 - pp. 238-270 (The 1970s – America Divides Ideologically)

Why did the "outsider" Carter (Georgia governor) rather than the "insider" Ted Kennedy (US Senator) become the Democratic Party presidential candidate in 1976?  What did Carter mean by claiming to bring "Morality" to the conduct of American foreign policy?  How did that relate to his surrender of the Panama Canal?  How did that confuse Iranian politics deeply and dangerously – despite a quick return of Carter to something more resembling Realpolitik – and what was the larger outcome for both Iran and the world?  How did the oil crisis caused by the fall of the Shah produce a global economic crisis … one worsened greatly by Volcker's intervention to "fight" inflation – actually only making it much, much worse?

How was the assault by American "Progressivists" on Middle America and its longstanding social standards intensified in the 1970s?  How was it that the Supreme Court took a leading role in this social development?  How did Christianity try to make a comeback in the face of this same development?  What was the exact nature of the Christian faith held by all three 1970s presidents – Nixon, Ford, and Carter?
Unit 9 - Review
4th Quarter – The Superpower under Challenge

Unit 1 - pp. 271-312 (The Reagan-Bush Era)

In what different ways did Reagan demonstrate that he too was a practitioner of Realpolitik (eg. Lebanon, Granada)?  How was it that America was able to climb out of the depression that hit at the beginning of the 1980s?  Why was tying Social Security to the federal debt not a good idea?  What was the Iran-Contra Affair all about?  Why did China succeed brilliantly and Russia fail catastrophically in their efforts to free up their societies?  What was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait all about … and how did Bush, Sr. handle the matter?

How was America itself undergoing a process of "Liberalization" … and what were the varying Christian responses to these developments?  Why could Reagan not get an amendment passed to override the Supreme Court's forbidding of prayer in public schooling?  How in 1987 did the Supreme Court go even further in undercutting America's longstanding Christian cultural-moral foundations?  Why were Supreme Court nominations now so very political?  Where did Reagan and Bush Sr. themselves stand as Christians?  

Unit 2 - pp. 313-341 (Clinton – and the Arrival of the Boomer Era)

Why did Bush Sr. get so easily replaced by the Boomer Clinton … and what was so unique about Clinton?   How is it that Gingrich forced Clinton to back away from his Liberal programming instincts … and have Clinton become himself rather "centrist" – even somewhat conservative – in economic-social matters?  How did that work well for America itself?  How did Clinton also demonstrate Realpolitik instincts when it came to foreign policy matters (Somalia, Israel-Palestine, Haiti, Rwanda … and ultimately Bosnia)?  How was that same Realpolitik instinct put to service several years later in Kosovo, in relations with Russia, and in NATO's expansion? 

But in what ways was the Arab Middle East firing up as a major problem area?  How did Muslim aggressiveness impact America itself in 1993?  How was America itself showing ever deeper instincts for violence in its handling of social-political matters (Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City, O.J. Simpson, Columbine High School)?  How was it that Congress's impeaching of presidents seems now to have become a regular part of the American political process? 

Unit 3 - pp. 342-375 ("Neo-Conservatism" under Bush Jr-1)

What did Bush Jr. mean by "Neo-Conservatism"?  How did 9/11 change all American priorities?  What were Bush's intentions in Afghanistan … and what were Rumsfeld's ideas on the matter?  Why not also take on Pakistan … a much bigger al Qaeda base?  Why did Bush (and Cheney-Rumsfeld) turn America's attention fully to Saddam's Iraq?  Why did the world fail to offer its support to America's Iraq operation the way it did to the Afghanistan operation?  What was the original plan for Iraq … and how did that work out?  What was the 2007 troop "Surge" all about? 

Unit 4 - pp. 375-410 (Bush Jr-2 and Obama "Changes" America-1)

What deep social-moral changes were taking place in the American economic dynamic during those same Bush Jr. years?  Why did that all end up as a catastrophic 2008 economic "meltdown"?  Why did Bush now believe that it was the government's job to bail corporate America out of this catastrophe?  How at the same time were the moral foundations of Christian "Middle America" further undercut politically (especially by the federal courts)?

Why was a well-recognized American war hero (McCain) unable to defeat a relatively politically-inexperienced Obama in the 2008 elections?  What did Obama have in mind with his call for deep "Change" in America?  How did the hand of the federal government in America's economic-social life continue to widen under Obama?  How was all of this dividing Congress into distinct Republican-Democratic Party lines … with almost nothing representing the political center?  Why did the federal debt climb (double even) in each of the Bush Jr. and Obama 8-year (two-terms each) presidential years? 

Unit 5 - pp. 410-445 (Obama-2)

Why was Obama nominated (and ultimately awarded) the Nobel Peace Prize ... before he had done anything of note?  In what ways did Obama move to end American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan … and with what results?  What about the bin Laden takedown?  How did the spreading spirit of revolt in the Middle East (the 2011 "Arab Spring") come to involve America – and with what results … particularly in Libya and Syria?  How was China now taking on a more familiar heavy hand in its politics both at home and abroad … and Russia also?  How did Obama and the West react to this?

How once again did American political dynamics seem to center on the Supreme Court … and its new appointments?  How did Obama's and the Courts' actions impact Middle America's foundational social values (such as Congress's once widely-supported 1996 Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA)?  How in other areas were deep changes in the American social agenda becoming evident? 

Unit 6 - pp. 446-482 (The Age of Trump)

Why was the 2016 election such a controversial event?   How was research material developed by the Hillary campaign used as a basis to try to impeach Trump?  What was happening during the very long investigation into the matter ... and with what ultimate results?  How would Trump's Supreme Court appointments change the political disposition of the Court?  On what basis did the Democrats attempt a second time to impeach Trump?

Why were hordes of people heading to America across its border with Mexico?  How were China and Russia becoming more aggressive in their relations with America and the West?  How was the Trump personality itself part of Trump's own foreign policy program … and with what results?  How did the Corona Virus outbreak – and subsequent lockdown – impact America and the world politically and socially? 

Why were the 2020 elections even more chaotic than the deeply contested 2016 elections?

Unit 7 - pp. 483-498 (Biden Takes Command)

What was the nature of the numerous Executive Orders that Biden immediately put into effect on becoming US president?  What about his background made him such a Washington DC loyalist?  What was his position vis- -vis the Mexican-American border-crossing into America of massive numbers of immigrants?  What was his view on the matter of federal government spending?  How well did he conduct the American withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Unit 8 - pp. 499-529 (The Lessons of History)

In what key ways does America seem deeply divided between two very different moral-spiritual approaches to life:  the Spiritual or Christian approach and the Materialist or Mechanical approach?  How has that actually always been the case … even since America's early years in the 1600s?  Why is the matter of God so controversial in America today?  What are the essential differences between Human Reason and Divine Reason?  Why are strong moral codes so vital to the strength and success of any society?  Why is the moral character of a society's leaders also of critical importance to any society?  Why is it so hard for some people to see God's hand in human history … especially in this matter of God's long-standing covenant with America?   What is Christian or Middle America to do today in the face of these challenges?

Unit 9 - Review

Go on to the next section:  Colonial Foundations - The Christian Social Legacy
  Miles H. Hodges