What can confessional Presbyterian and Reformed folk learn from the history of Roman Catholicism in America? Quite a lot as it turns out. We are continuing our brief hiatus from the series, As It Was In The Days of Noah to talk with D. G. Hart, author of the new book, American Catholic: The Politics of Faith in the Cold War (Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2020). This is an important new book, which deserves our attention for a few reasons. First, the USA has only its second Roman Catholic president in its history and Roman Catholicism is professedly an important part of his identity. Both the President and his publicists (i.e., the American news media) have invoked his faith as justification for more than one of his policies. Second, the Roman Catholic experience in the USA is a fascinating story. How does a largely marginal, immigrant church, which mostly arrived since the mid-nineteenth century, come to be arguably the dominant religious organization in the USA? Look around at American cultural institutions. Before World War II the USA was dominated by the old Liberal Protestant establishment, folk who used to be called WASPs (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants). Scholars of American religion and history have long written about the “Protestant hegemony” in American life. That hegemony is dead and though evangelicals have aspired to fill that void, they have not. Romanists, however, have. It is a remarkable story also because, until 1964, Rome was officially opposed to the founding principles of the American Republic. The history of Roman Catholics is not entirely unlike that of the Mormons, who were originally hostile to the USA. Remember, Mormons actually fought battles against the United States Army. Today, however, both Roman Catholics and Mormons would be counted as among the staunchest defenders of the USA while the old WASP establishment is dominated by those who mostly seem to regret the existence of the USA. Darryl Hart is one of the more important writers on the history of American Christianity. He is a ruling elder in the OPC and Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College.

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Show Notes

• How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
• How To Make the Coffer Clink: Use the Donate Button Below This Post
• Heidelblog Resources
• The HB Media Archive
• Heidelcast 97: A Secular Faith With Darryl Hart
• Audio: Hart Being Faithful in a Secular World
• Heidelcast 138: With Darryl Hart On Why You Should Not Convert To Rome
• Resources On Roman Catholicism
• Why I Will Not Follow Mark Galli Across The Tiber
• Heidelcast 67: Recovering Mother Kirk
• D. G. Hart, The Lost Soul of American Protestantism
• D. G. Hart, A Secular Faith
• Office Hours: Darryl Hart On The Global History Of Calvinism