A God-Shaped Nation
A Guided Reading with Author Brook Wilensky-Lanford
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Join the author of A God-Shaped Nation for a guided reading through the religious history of America
- Dates: Wednesdays—July 1, 15, 29; August 12, 26; September 9Â
(The First day: July 1st) - Time:Â 3:00-4:00 PM ET
Ever since conquistadores claimed Taino land in the name of their Catholic God and New England Puritans formed their strictly Protestant “city on a hill,” religion has been central to American life. Even as some found religious freedom—Rhode Island welcomed the Quakers, Jews, and Baptists that Massachusetts expelled as dissenters—indigenous people and Africans forced into slavery struggled to protect their religious practices. With the constitutional separation of church and state, it fell to the American people to decide: would they sharpen religion’s formidable powers of division, or reimagine its creative possibilities?
In A God-Shaped Nation, Dr. Brook Wilensky-Lanford follows this essential American tension from first contact through the 2024 election. This is an expansive but approachable history of extraordinary religious questions, told through the ordinary people who grappled with them.
As this anticipated book hits shelves for the 250th anniversary of the United States, you can join the author for a guided reading.
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- Featuring:
- ✔ Seven 60-Minute Sessions
- ✔ Taped Live and Instantly Available
- ✔ Community Discussion
- ✔ Transcripts
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STORIES OF DEFIANCE
Join this virtual reading group and in two months you’ll gain a deeper understanding of religion in American history through fascinating case studies. You’ll read stories of defiance, like:
- Anne Hutchinson, preaching against Puritan clergy;
- Reform rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise serving soft-shell crab to his kosher guests at an 1883 banquet;
- Wovoka, a Paiute man who envisioned the Ghost Dance movement, which persisted in the face of violent government repression at Wounded Knee.
STORIES OF POWER
You’ll also read stories of community and political power, including:
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Millerites waiting together in vain for Jesus’s return on a rainy October night in 1844;
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Chinese immigrants bringing Daoist and Buddhist gods to their California temples;
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Mormons pushing westward to build their “new Zion” in Utah;
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How the religious right has sought to shape the present and paint the past in its own image.
At a moment when religion penetrates even the most secular aspects of American life, understanding its history is more essential than ever before. “It is in history that the very human work of religion happens,” Wilensky-Lanford shows us, “and in ordinary time that even the most carved-in-stone tenets can and do change.”
Reading Schedule
Week 1 (July 1st): Introduction
Week 2 (July 15th): Part 1: Establishment, 1492-1789
Week 3 (July 29nd): Part 2: Freedom, 1789-1865
Week 4 (August 12th): Part 3: Awakening, 1865-1929
Week 5 (August 26th): Part 4: Dominion, 1930–1980
Week 6 (September 9th): Part 5: Morals, 1980–2025, and Epilogue
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