John Witherspoon’s American Revolution:
Enlightenment and Religion from the Creation of Britain to the Founding of the United States
by gideon mailer
university of north carolina, 440 pages, $45
Were John Witherspoon living today, he would be a regular contributor to First Things. A Scottish Presbyterian divine, learned philosopher, and fervent Evangelical, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, he believed that religious societies—that is, churches—had a public role in nurturing social and political order. He moved with his family to the American colonies in 1768 to become president of the College of New Jersey located in the village of Princeton. Almost at once he was caught up in the debates over dissolving the ties between the colonies and the king and parliament of England.