David Gelernter starts with an undoubted fact and uses it to construct a bizarre fantasy. The origins of America have been profoundly religious; in particular, the Puritans affected American thought in pervasive fashion. Their influence long persisted their demise as a distinct movement in the nineteenth century. Thus, historians who view the Founding Fathers as creatures of a secular Enlightenment are badly mistaken. He argues that Americans, using Puritan thought as a starting point, have constructed a new religion. The new religion, Gelernter holds, is a great spiritual achievement. We ought to bow down and worship according to its tenets. In doing so, we need not abandon Christianity or Judaism. Quite the contrary, the new religion is fully compatible with the ancient faiths. FULL ARTICLE
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/7009/are-americans-the-chosen-people/
Are Americans the Chosen People?
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David, it sounds like Gelernter is trying to describe the parameters, underpinnings and development of what he sees of the unique American place in the world and of American citizen`s perception of it. If he is tring to provide a normative argument FOR an American religion then certainly you are correct to criticize him for that, but if not, then perhaps your criticism should be directed at whether Gelernter`s argument that there is a unique American perspective – that can be seen as a religion – holds any water.
It sounds to me that Gelernter may have a point or two, that explains our ability to thrive despite the immigration of diverse peoples of different backgrounds and creeds, our general “can do” and “keep the government off my back” attitudes, the status of “God Bless America” as a quasi-national anthem, our perceived need to export democracy, and the imperviousness of certain common views to critical examination.
It sounds like he was locked in a think tank for like 12 years and emerged with this.
He sounds nuts to me. I have no doubt that “Americanism” is a religion to some people, but the Puritans didn’t start it. Beside, Christ told Pilot that his kingdom is not of this world. If it were, his followers would use swords to establish and defend it. Ever since Constantine, people have made the mistake that Christianity can be a political entity. It cannot and never has been. All attempts to make it one have ended in tyrrany, the exact opposite of what Christ intended.
Gelernter should know that the Dutch Republic thought of itself as the New Israel, too, for many decades after its founding.
“The religious idea called ‘America’ is religious insofar as it tells an absolute truth about the meaning of human life, a truth that we must take on faith. (‘We hold these truths to be self-evident,’ says the Declaration of Independence. No proofs are supplied)” (p. 2, emphasis omitted). Gelernter confuses recognizing something as self-evident….”
The problem may lie in the fact that Gernter does not realize that no proofs are possible for self-evident truths. A self-evident truth is another name for an axiom. In order to prove the merits or demerits of an axiom, one would have to step outside the axiom. For example, to prove the existence of Reality, one would have to step outside of Reality to do so.
I recently read Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. It focuses on the early settlers and their “interaction” (I’m being kind here) with the natives. Quite frankly, it didn’t take very long before things got quite ugly. There were many settlers who believed that they were acting in God’s name; but quite frankly, it didn’t seem particularly religious to me. What it really boiled down to was too many settlers and not enough land.
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