316F Fall 2026 Religion and the American Experiment

English author G.K. Chesterton once described America as “a nation with the soul of a church.” Other Europeans commented that while American religion was less bland than its cuisine, it was just as baneful. In this course, we will survey the history of religion in America, that is, in the geographic region that became the United States. We will discuss Puritanism and its encounter with the New World; religion and the American founding; Catholics, Mormons, and Jews, and movements against them; and the rise and fall and rise again of the Religious Right. 

John G. Turner is professor of Religious Studies and History at George Mason University and chairs the Department of Religious Studies. He writes broadly about the intersection of religion and U.S. history including a history of Plymouth Colony and biographies of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Most recently, he authored Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.