Discussion & Book Signing with Professor John Fea

Join us at the bookshop for a discussion and book-signing with Professor John Fea for his book, WAS AMERICA FOUNDED AS A CHRISTIAN NATION?, an evenhanded primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend.

About the Author: "I was born and raised in Morris County, New Jersey (Montville/Boonton area) and completed my Ph.D in American History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1999) with a specialization in early American history. Prior to coming to Messiah College I taught American history at Valparaiso University (IN) where I served a two-year postdoctoral appointment with the Lilly Fellows Program in Arts and Humanities. I joined the history department at Messiah in the fall of 2002. . .As a scholar I think and write about American culture broadly defined, the intersection between ideas and everyday life in American history, the relationship between “cosmopolitanism” and “place,” the history of the early mid-Atlantic and New Jersey, and the connections between religion, politics and American culture. I am also interested in the role of church-related higher education in American society and the relationship between faith and academic life. "

Book Description: Fea offers an even-handed primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend. He approaches the title's question from a historical perspective, helping readers see past the emotional rhetoric of today to the recorded facts of our past. Readers on both sides of the issues will appreciate that this book occupies a middle ground, noting the good points and the less-nuanced arguments of both sides and leading us always back to the primary sources that our shared American history comprises.