|
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, Volume One, pages 1-18 |
|
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
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. 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
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. 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 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. |
|
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.
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. |
|
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.
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.
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! |
|
Working from America – The Covenant Nation
Questions to consider in doing the readings 1st Quarter – Origins and Early Development of the American Covenant
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 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 stop 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?
Why was Protestantism considered to be such a danger to Christian
Europe in the 1500s and 1600s? What was it that the "Puritans"
were attempting to achieve in terms of social reform in England?
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 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? In what ways was New England so very different from Virginia? How did New England have its own distinct challenges to its survival and development? 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 latter 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 political-moral tradition, rather than on a new or
"revolutionary" form of government? Why was it nedessary 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 eventually result in some kind of
tyranny?
Unit 6 - pp. 174-209 (The Young Republic)
How
Unit 7 - pp. 210-247 (The Shaping of a Nation)
How
Unit 8 - pp. 248-273 (Expansion ... and Division)
How
Unit 9 - Review 2nd Quarter – The Gradual Rise to Greatness
Unit 1 - pp. 274-309 (War Clouds ... and Civil War-1) What
Unit 2 - pp. 309-339 (Civil War-2 ... and Recovery) What
Unit 3 - pp. 340-373 (The "Gilded Age" ... and Progressivism -1) What
Unit 4 - pp. 373-406 (Progressivism-2 ... and Modern Rationalism-1) What
Unit 5 - pp. 406-435 (Modern Rationalism-2) What
Unit 6 - pp. 436-475 (Nationalism, Imperialism and the "Great War") What
Unit 7 - pp. 476-506 (The "Roaring Twenties") What
Unit 8 - pp. 507-530 (The Great Depression - The 1930s) What
Unit 9 - Review 3rd Quarter – Cold-War America
Unit 1 - pp. 1-30 (The Dictators ... and World War Two-1) What
Unit 2 - pp. 30-66 (World War Two-2 ... and a Developing Cold War) What
Unit 3 - pp. 66-99 (Cold War-2 ... and Middle America Comes of Age-1) What
Unit 4 - pp. 99-138 (Middle America Comes of Age-2) What
Unit 5 - pp. 139-170 (The Early 1960s) What
Unit 6 - pp. 171-212 (The Later 1960s) What
Unit 7 - pp. 213-241 (The 1970s – America Divides Ideologically-1) What
Unit 8 - pp. 241-270 (The 1970s – America Divides Ideologically-2) What
Unit 9 - Review 4th Quarter – The Superpower under Challenge
Unit 1 - pp. 271-312 (The Reagan-Bush Era) What
Unit 2 - pp. 313-341 (Clinton – and the Arrival of the Boomer Era) What
Unit 3 - pp. 342-375 ("Neo-Conservatism" under Bush Jr-1) What
Unit 4 - pp. 375-410 (Bush Jr-2 and Obama "Changes" America-1) What
Unit 5 - pp. 410-445 (Obama-2) What
Unit 6 - pp. 446-482 (The Age of Trump) What
Unit 7 - pp. 483-498 (Biden Takes Command) What
Unit 8 - pp. 499-529 (The Lessons of History)
What
Unit 9 - Review
|