City Upon A Hill

The Puritan founder John Winthrop preached about 'a city upon a hill', Abraham Lincoln's two greatest speeches have been called 'sermons on the mount', and Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' oration is nothing if not a sermon. Not only can the history of the United States be told through its reflection in the landmark sermons preached from its pulpits and in front of its memorials, but in fact it was often the sermon that inspired and helped define American history. Between the colonisation of America and the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the sermon has both shaped America's self-understanding and reflected both sides of its most important social, political, military, and philosophical debates. That is the story of "A City Upon a Hill: How the Sermon Made America", a narrative history of events, people, and ideas, showing us at our best - and sometimes at our worst. The sermon offers a uniquely compelling vehicle to tell the national story. The sermon shows that what America says and believes can often be better than what it does, serving as a national conscience amid centuries of triumphalist claims. The sermon gathers together four centuries of disparate strands and provides a solid grip for defining a nation.