America's Story - A Spiritual Journey: An Abridged Version of the Three-Volume Series America - The Covenant Nation

by Miles H Hodges

Overview

This book is a summarized version of the three-volume history series, America - The Covenant Nation (2020) ... with the politics portion of the original series in summary form - while retaining in full the moral-spiritual content of the larger series.

It begins with a look at the ancient Israelites, Greeks, and Romans - as well as medieval feudalism and Calvin's Geneva, in laying the moral foundations for both feudal Virginia and Puritan New England.  It looks at some early spiritual wanderings ... and a Great Awakening that brought American back on course - in time to fend off a British effort to end America's spirit of independence.  It covers the creation of the new Republic, the growing divide over slavery, and the Civil War that followed.  It details the post-war Industrial Revolution, the Age of National Imperialism, World War One, the Roaring Twenties, etc. - all the way up to today's Biden presidency ... in short, all the periods covered in a typical U.S. history.

What distinguishes this work is its emphasis on the social-moral dynamics, both at home and in American foreign policy. It focuses heavily on America's constant struggle to stay on course as a democratic/Christian "City on a Hill," covenanted with God to serve the world as a "Light to the Nations" ... America itself having to combat spiritually the constant (and very self-destructive) urge of human Reason to want to play God and control life through well-reasoned plans and programs - both at home and abroad.

It concludes with a review of the lessons we ought to learn from our own American history: the challenges presented by America's own sub-cultural

complexity, the importance of having a higher or Godly vision uniting and guiding the nation, the key role that moral leadership plays in keeping that

higher vision in focus for the nation, the importance of inspiring the world rather than trying to "fix" it, and the vital role America has been assigned to defend Western/Christian civilization itself.  But most importantly, the book emphasizes the importance of maintaining America's very special covenant relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781737641377
Publisher:	Miles H Hodges
Publication date:	10/15/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	566
File size:	969 KB

About the Author

Miles Hodges is a combination Georgetown "political realist" (MA, PhD) and a Princeton Seminary "evangelical" (MDiv) long-interested in America's role in the world, long serving as a secular political science professor (University of South Alabama: founder and head of the International Studies Program) while also serving at the same time as a corporate international political risk consultant. Then by the grace of God, he was called by God to street and prison ministry and to pastor three Presbyterian congregations. He then "retired" to become a social dynamics (the cause of the rise and fall of societies), history, and French teacher at a Christian high school (The King's Academy) in Pennsylvania - using the close study of America's and other cultures' histories as a "laboratory" designed to bring the broad focus of God and society to the understanding of young minds. He recently (2020) published a three-volume American history, focusing on the way a very special covenant with God has long guided this nation. And even more recently (2021), he published a personal autobiography focused on his own spiritual journey "from cynical realism to a born-again Christian faith" ... and now this single-volume (560 pages) abridged version of his three-volume American history.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Rise and Fall of Societies

The Parable of the Four Generations

The Christian Component in the Dynamic

The Purpose and Character of This Study

1. America's Moral-Spiritual Inheritance
2. Getting Started in America
3. Independence - And the New Republic
4. The American Republic Gets Up and Running
5. Civil War (1861-1865) and Recovery
6. America Comes of Age
7. America Enters the World Stage
8. World War Two and the Start of the Cold War
9. Middle-Class America Triumphant
10. America Shifts to the Humanist Left
11. The 1970s: America Divided
12. The World's Sole Superpower
13. America Stumbles
14. Obama Strives to "Change" America
15. Into the Age of Trump
16. Biden Takes Command
17. The Lessons of History

The Two Americas

The Two Societies During Colonial Times

Why This Matter of God Is So Important

Human Reason Versus Godly or Divine Reason

The Role of Personal and Social Morals in Guiding a Society

Leadership Is Key to a Society's Moral Order

God's Hand in Human History

Inspiring the World, Rather Than Trying to Fix It

Defending Western/Christian Civilization

A Call to Renew the Covenant with God Through Jesus Christ