A Democratic and Republican Faith: A Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis
Raymond R. Roberts
Wipf & Stock Publishers, 206 pages
Published April 27, 2026
Post-Revolutionary War-era diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that Protestant congregations encouraged “a form of Christianity, which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and republican religion.” This observation becomes the jumping-off point for Raymond Roberts to explore early American churches’ key contribution to America’s democratic form of governance and our republican ideals.
More than just a clever play on words, the title, A Democratic and Republican Faith demonstrates that the thread of Protestant faith in the American story goes beyond partisanship. Roberts, a pastor and professor of ethics, is convinced that “Christianity’s view that all people are equal in God’s sight encourages the republican ideal that all citizens are equal before the law.” In their desire to establish a country without a national religion, Roberts argues that American forefathers were guided by their faith — even if they often lived their Christian ideals haphazardly.
Related reading: “Navigating the stars and stripes in the sanctuary” by David Dack
A Democratic and Republican Faith is a thoughtful exploration of American public theology, the Christian ideals embedded in our founding documents, and the covenantal foundations of our nation. Roberts encourages mainstream Protestantism to deepen and “thicken” both our principles and faith. It’s difficult – often countercultural – to aspire to a higher morality, and so we need “good, thick reasons to do necessary but difficult things.”
It’s an earnest book, written by a thoughtful writer who loves God and country and who is deeply invested. He writes with pride — in Presbyterians and other people of faith who believed, at our country’s founding, that we could aspire to be a place where humans joyfully live out our call to participate in God’s ongoing work of creation.
Roberts’ analysis of the use of covenantal language by America’s founders is particularly compelling. Just as Christians continue to benefit from God’s early covenants with all creation and the Israelites, the covenantal language of America’s founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence, continues to bind us today. A Democratic and Republican Faith gives us much to think about, with Roberts’ final chapter, “Toward a Thicker Christianity” serving as our call to action.
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