From Sea to Praying Sea

One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America

by James P. Moore, Jr.

Doubleday, 2005

519 pages, $29.95

To order: (800) 726-0600

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“America is a nation with the soul of a church,” said G.K. Chesterton, famously.

Churches pray. So does America, argues James Moore, former assistant secretary of commerce and now an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. His book, a tour of public prayer through five centuries of American history, masterfully leads readers from the entreaties of Christopher Columbus to the benedictions of George W. Bush.

America, Moore maintains, never had a “naked public square.” Prayer has always profoundly shaped this society, its government and leaders, its history and its culture. That doesn’t mean Americans wear their prayer lives on their sleeves.

“The great irony in the United States today is that, while prayer has long played a critical role in the life of America, it too often has become a subject best publicly avoided,” Moore writes. “Even though prayer has pervaded American life consciously and unconsciously throughout history, many people have difficulty discussing it. … [W]e will know we have become a mature nation when we can speak freely about the importance of prayer without fear of adolescent embarrassment.”

Moore shows that those who pray are no vanishing breed: Our neighbors, ordinary Americans past and present, pray.

But what is prayer? The author wisely recognizes the varying prayer practices of individuals as diverse as Black Elk, George Washington, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Weldon Johnson and Aretha Franklin. What all have in common, he shows, is a recognition of prayer as “the elevated communication of human beings with their God … Like grains of sand … no two individuals pray or perceive God exactly alike.”

This volume is the product of Moore’s search for a book that comprehensively addressed prayer as a fact of American life. Finding none, he filled the gap. The book is neither a popular religious history nor a dry, academic tome. Moore tells how Americans, steeped in prayer, have shaped their society, history and culture. His synthesis of so many details into a coherent whole makes for a pleasant read; it’s both a solid history lesson and a trivia-lover’s delight. 

At times, Moore may go too far out of his way to maintain an ecumenical and upbeat tone. Indeed, if I had any reservation, it’s Moore’s proclivity to accentuate the positive even when describing events that call for some constructive criticism. Is every presidential proclamation of thanksgiving necessarily suggestive of the personal pieties of each of America’s presidents? Could some of them have just been paying their dues to American civil religion — or maybe even using pious rhetoric to score political points?

Moore showcases the spiritual lives of Americans. How many citizens today know that J.C. Penney ran a philanthropy to care for retired ministers? That one of Bill Cosby’s early repartees, back when he was starting out as a comic, involved a dialogue between God and Noah? That the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” emerged from a carriage ride Julia Ward Howe took with her minister one afternoon in 1861 to see Union troops drilling in northern Virginia?

Seeing U.S. history against the backdrop of persistent prayer, the reader is reminded what a hungry heart America has for God’s guidance. Were Chesterton alive today, he might add a qualifier or two to his observation of our country — but he certainly wouldn’t have to retract it. That’s a good thing.

John M. Grondelski writes

from Washington, D.C.