Philosophers of the Enlightenment inherited more than a millennium of unremitting sacrifice and toil by the divines of the Church and their faithful followers in building Christian civilization in Europe. The ubiquitous presence of confessionals is evidence enough that the Church had no illusions about human depravity. Only the love and power of God could save man from sin, temper his morals, and make him better fitted for political society.

With the Enlightenment’s advent, some philosophers instead professed faith in themselves, rather than in God and His Church. David Hume taught future architects of constitutions that “every man ought to be supposed a knave”—which is in crude agreement with Christian precept—but also that artful constitutional design could make knaves cooperate for the public good. That is, the new science of politics could dispense with the cross.

Can inventions of prudence alone guarantee the stability and health of a republican form of government? The Character of America is a book for thoughtful Americans who are skeptical about this proposition. The editors, husband and wife Elizabeth M. C’de Baca Eastman and Claremont Institute scholar John C. Eastman, along with the University of Houston’s Terrell L. Hallmark, have collected nine essays and an epilogue, and dedicated them to their teacher, political scientist William