," he used an apt phrase, as valid now as when he coined it 120 years ago. It perfectly expresses the close but at the same time slightly uneasy relationship between the American Repub- lic and the religious spirit.
That Americans are exceptional in their attitude toward re- ligion is obvious to all, and never more so than today. But visi- tors from old Europe, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Pope John Paul 11, are struck by the way in which high church atten- dance rates and an often blatant...