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Long before George W. Bush''s efforts to bring faith-based initiatives to the modern presidency, Ronald Reagan was using his own brand of Christianity to influence the course of world events. In this bestselling spiritual biography of our fortieth president, Paul Kengor presents a meticulously researched, fascinating account of Reagan''s life as seen through the lens of his relationship to God. An intensely private man, Reagan was relatively discreet about his personal faith. However, nothing more strongly clashed with his belief system than Soviet communism. To Reagan, the United States was a divinely ordained beacon of freedom, and Kengor argues that it was this conviction that compelled him to a series of challenges that would eventually bring down the Eastern Bloc. Combining groundbreaking research with fascinating storytelling, God and Ronald Reagan will forever change our understanding of one of the United States''s most influential presidents. Paul Kengor, Ph.D. is an associate professor of political science at Grove City College. Nationally known for his work on presidential history, he has been featured in dozens of major national publications, including USA Today, the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, National Review, Philadelphia Inquirer and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, Kengor has served as president of the Shenango Institute and is a member of the editorial board of Presidential Studies Quarterly. He lives with his wife and three children in Grove City, Pennsylvania. ''Paul Kengor''s book may be the most important book on my dad ... God and Ronald Reagan captures the real Ronald Reagan.'' -Michael Reagan
About the author
Paul Kengor is the author of the New York Times extended-list bestseller God and Ronald Reagan as well as God and George W. Bush and The Crusader. He is a professor of political science and director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College. He lives with his wife and children in Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Summary
Ronald Reagan is hailed today for a presidency that restored optimism to America, engendered years of economic prosperity, and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet until now little attention has been paid to the role Reagan's personal spirituality played in his political career, shaping his ideas, bolstering his resolve, and ultimately compelling him to confront the brutal -- and, not coincidentally, atheistic -- Soviet empire.
In this groundbreaking book, political historian Paul Kengor draws upon Reagan's legacy of speeches and correspondence, and the memories of those who knew him well, to reveal a man whose Christian faith remained deep and consistent throughout his more than six decades in public life. Raised in the Disciples of Christ Church by a devout mother with a passionate missionary streak, Reagan embraced the church after reading a Christian novel at the age of eleven. A devoted Sunday-school teacher, he absorbed the church's model of "practical Christianity" and strived to achieve it in every stage of his life.
But it was in his lifelong battle against communism -- first in Hollywood, then on the political stage -- that Reagan's Christian beliefs had their most profound effect. Appalled by the religious repression and state-mandated atheism of Bolshevik Marxism, Reagan felt called by a sense of personal mission to confront the USSR. Inspired by influences as diverse as C.S. Lewis, Whittaker Chambers, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he waged an openly spiritual campaign against communism, insisting that religious freedom was the bedrock of personal liberty. "The source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual," he said in his Evil Empire address. "And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man."
From a church classroom in 1920s Dixon, Illinois, to his triumphant mission to Moscow in 1988, Ronald Reagan was both political leader and spiritual crusader. God and Ronald Reagan deepens immeasurably our understanding of how these twin missions shaped his presidency -- and changed the world.
