Religion & Society

The role of faith in American public life — from Puritan New England to evangelical politics, revivals to disestablishment.

Evangelical Christianity

The faith of revivals, reform movements, and the most durable political coalition in modern American history

First Great Awakening

The 1730s–1740s religious revival that made Americans a people before they were a nation

Judaism in America

From a 1654 landing in New Amsterdam to the largest Jewish diaspora community in history

Mormonism

The only major religion born in America — and the only one expelled from multiple states at gunpoint

Puritanism

The theology that named America a chosen nation — and what survived when the faith faded

Separation of Church and State

The constitutional principle Jefferson named, the courts refined, and America has been arguing about ever since

The Second Great Awakening

The religious revival that reshaped American faith, reform, and politics, 1800–1840