An American Dream Book

Those who founded America had a dream-not the dream of material affluence so common today but a more basic dream of Rights, Resistance, and Hope. By rights, they meant those unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness given by the Creator to all men. By resistance, they meant the right and responsibility to resist illegitimate government. By hope, they meant belief in the possibility of a better future.

In An American Dream, John W. Whitehead shows that these three elements-rights, resistance, and hope-are at the very center of the American experience and that they form the core of American founding documents and institutions. Moreover, Whitehead shows clearly that these basic elements spring from a particular world view, which may be described best as Christian. Remarkably, many of the signers of the Declaration of the Independence shared this world view. Even more remarkably, the colonial clergy were a decisive influence in disseminating these ideas throughout the Colonies and in shaping the intellectual climate where they came to fruition.

Sadly, in this past century, America has undergone a dramatic shift away from the Christian world view. A new philosophy of secularism has taken over, leaving in its wake a rising tide of moral, social, and spiritual degeneracy. The Dream lies in tatters at our feet, but it doesn't have to stay there.

An American Dream concludes with an inspiring call for the restoration of the American soul-a vision of the American Dream once again lived out in its full power, hope, and beauty.