ON TWO WINGS: HUMBLE FAITH AND COMMON SENSE AT THE AMERICAN FOUNDING

by Michael Novak

Encounter Books, 2001

235 pages, $23.95

To order: (800) 786-3839

www.encounterbooks.com

For years there has been a running debate in academic, religious and cultural circles about the founding of the United States of America. Did the nation originate from Judeo-Christian roots or from Enlightenment principles? To what degree was the American founding “Christian”? If it was Christian, how compatible are its Protestant premises with Catholic social and political teaching? Such questions are important, of course, since they inform how Catholics should view the American political process and how they are to be involved in it.

Sadly, many Americans, especially high-school and college students, know little to nothing about the American founders and the role religion played in their lives. Michael Novak's On Two Wings addresses the topic with clarity, balance and abundant documentation.

Novak has been writing about politics, economics and the Catholic faith for nearly 40 years. Perhaps best known for The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, he is also the co-founder of the influential periodicals First Things and Crisis. His latest book was clearly a labor of love. Novak candidly writes in the preface that “I have wanted to write this book for some forty years, [but] my ignorance stood in the way.” He lays out his thesis in the opening paragraph:

“In one key respect, the way the story of the United States has been told for the past one hundred years is wrong. It has cut off one of the two wings by which the American eagle flies, her compact with the God of the Jews –- the God of Israel championed by the nation's first Protestants –– the God Who prefers the humble and weak things of this world, the small tribe of Israel being one of them. … Believe that there is such a God or not –- the founding generation did, and relied upon this belief. Their faith is an indispensable part of the story.”

Concerned by the secularist presentation of the American founders as nominal Christians who relied on Enlightenment-era philosophy, Novak demonstrates that they were mostly devout Protestant Christians who had a keen, if not always perfect, appreciation for natural law and divine revelation. Since the founders came from different Protestant denominations, they largely avoided specific theological language, instead referring to God as Lawgiver, Creator, Judge, and Providence. On a practical level, they were given to regular public prayer, absolute moral standards and a belief in God's divine guidance. Novak's compilation of quotes and anecdotes is impressive, making it difficult to disregard the central role of Judeo-Christian thought and belief in the birth of the nation.

Novak readily admits that weaknesses existed in the founding and that many problems in American history are the result of the founders' limitations. Foremost is the matter of slavery; there was also an “excessive emphasis on the utility of religion, and insufficient intellectual clarity about the nature of religion, Judaism and Christianity in particular …”

Two Wings highlights the uniqueness of America while also warning of the need for constant vigilance and robust morality in a republic. The founders agreed that the United States would remain strong only if the moral habits of its citizens were virtuous. Some of the most poignant quotes are in this regard. Novak quotes George Washington, who wrote: “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.”

Provocative, educational, and cautionary, Two Wings will open many eyes to an often ignored and misunderstood chapter of history.

Carl Olson is editor of Envoy magazine (www.envoymagazine.com).