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The world has gone insane and our only hope for a peaceful and prosperous future is a return to our spiritual roots.
Over a 9 month period, I scanned many thousands of letters, journals, newspaper articles, and government documents for the prayers of America’s founding generation. I wanted to know what they really believed about God, faith, and religion. American Prayers is the end result.
This book contains prayers excerpted from letters, journals, speeches, and government documents produced during the later decades of America’s colonial period and the early decades of the Republic. After reading these Heaven-directed petitions by Presidents, congressmen, soldiers, and citizens, no one will ever be able to tell you that America was never a Christian nation. The words of our founding generations are conclusive proof that the United States is a nation built on Christian principles, by Christians, and for Christians!
Plus: Short biographical sketches of a some of the most significant Americans from the 18th century.
American Prayers is available in e-book format through Smashwords and other e-book sellers.
This video highlights just a few of the profound prayers from our ancestors:
Check out these Amazon reviews:
This book surprised me. I’d always heard that the American nation is Christian, blah blah blah, but truthfully I anticipated its history to be more secular. This book is exactly what it says on the tin: Prayer after prayer drawn from everything from private letters and communications which may have been kept private, to public addresses, to the prayers held and called for over and by the governmental bodies that founded the US of A. Chock full of primary sources, the specificity and richness of the language of the prayers does not allow for the schismatic, secular, irreligious portrayal so common of the Founding Fathers themselves—even the jocular Ben Franklin still brings himself to a serious sobriety for prayers to the Christian God—and indeed men and women from every sort of leadership and representing all walks of life, which emphasizes the point of the publication: America has only recently become pluralistic in religion, and the American identity has always had Christian ideals and practices fueling the freedoms it has stood for for so long.
(Amazon reviewer, barg uist.)
Much ado has been made about the religious history of the American nation. In particular, various popular views include beliefs that don’t hold up under scrutiny. Who were the people constituting the generation that founded the United States? What were their religious views? How did these views appear in their correspondence with one another?
Jay Carper has assembled a sweeping set of writings by early Americans to answer these questions. In the process, Carper paints a vivid picture of the way Christianity completely saturates the background of daily life. These men and women identified strongly as Christians. Period.
Get to know these people and their views. At the same time, get inspired, refresh your commitment to your own views, and integrate them better into your daily life.
(Amazon reviewer, mistaben.)
I received an advance copy of American Prayers, which turns out to be a treasure trove of primary sources for anyone from an Advance Placement US History teacher like myself to the every day history buff. The author’s purpose–to gather evidence for the contention that America was from the beginning a Christian nation (as opposed to government)–is a worthy one, and this collection of prayers written by the Founders accomplishes it. However, even if one chooses to hold firm to ahistorical revisionism, there is still a tremendous amount of value in this collection. A prime example is George Whitefield’s “A Prayer for a Poor Negroe”. Few primary documents can match it for insight into the mindset, culture, and worldview of the founding generation. I can foresee using this document and dozens more in my APUSH course for the rest of my career.
(Amazon reviewer, Chris Naron)
A wonderful compilation of prayers that give you insist into what was in the minds of those who shaped our country.
(Amazon reviewer, Donna Marie)
