Book Review: Revolution
Eric Metaxas, Revolution: the Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. Odysseus Books, 2006. 640 pp.
Few contemporary Christian writers have had careers as varied as that of Eric Metaxas. A Yale-educated author, speaker, and nationally syndicated radio host, Metaxas first made his mark writing scripts for VeggieTales before becoming one of the most successful Christian biographers of the past two decades. His works on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Wilberforce, and Martin Luther introduced countless readers to towering figures of Christian history. More recently, he has turned toward America’s cultural and political life through books such as Letter to the American Church and now Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World.
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As a history professor at a small Christian college, I often remind students that the past is not merely a collection of dates but the story of real people making consequential decisions. Sometimes they need that reminder. A few semesters ago, while discussing the American Revolution, I gave a short pop test: “Who was Benedict Arnold?” Two students answered, “Invented the omelet.” Moments like that break a historian’s heart, enliven faculty meetings, and remind me why books like Metaxas’s continue to find an audience.
The Christian Foundations of the American Revolution
Metaxas does not present Revolution as an exhaustive academic history of the American founding. Readers looking for extensive historiographical debates or detailed analysis of wartime strategy will need to look elsewhere. Instead, he offers an accessible narrative history that seeks to recover appreciation for the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the birth of the United States. He writes with the conviction that the founding represented a remarkable convergence of providence, principle, and courageous leadership.
Providence and Prayer
That conviction rests on a larger argument: the American founding cannot be properly understood apart from its religious foundations. Metaxas highlights the influence of biblical ideas, Christian morality, and divine providence on many leading founders. Among the book’s most compelling moments are its reminders that the First Continental Congress opened with prayer led by Anglican clergyman Jacob Duché. John Adams recalled that Duché read several prayers and the collect for September 7, centered on Psalm 35: “Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me.” Adams said he “never saw a greater effect upon an audience,” as though Heaven had ordained that Psalm for the moment. Metaxas also recounts Adams’s later call for “A Day of Fasting and Prayer for all the colonies,” the first of fifteen national calls to prayer during the Revolution.
Liberty in Religious Language
Metaxas further shows how religious language permeated the political literature of the age. Thomas Paine, despite his later deism, could ask, “Where, say some, is the King of America?” before answering, “The Divine Law, the Word of God.” When Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, it concluded with “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” For Metaxas, these are not incidental phrases but signs that many revolutionary leaders understood liberty within a theological framework.
The Faith of the Founding Fathers
This theme continues in Metaxas’s treatment of leading statesmen and later observers. George Washington urged his countrymen to “exert the strength which Providence has given us to defend our natural rights,” while trusting that the God “who speaks the fate of the nations” would not abandon their cause. Samuel Adams likewise exhorted Americans, “Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save.” John Quincy Adams later concluded that the Revolution “connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” Whether one agrees with every conclusion Metaxas draws from this evidence, he rightly reminds readers that religion occupied a far more significant place in eighteenth-century America than many contemporary accounts acknowledge.
Strengths and Limits
Metaxas’s chief strength is storytelling, and that gift is evident throughout this volume. Historical figures emerge as recognizable human beings rather than marble statues. Washington, the Adamses, Benjamin Franklin, and lesser-known participants become actors in a compelling drama rather than names in textbook timelines. The pace is brisk, the prose engaging, and the chapters approachable for readers who might feel intimidated by larger scholarly works.
At the same time, readers should recognize that Metaxas writes as a public intellectual rather than an academic historian. His enthusiasm sometimes produces broad generalizations, and specialists will challenge parts of his interpretation. His admiration for the American experiment is unmistakable, and his narrative often favors moral clarity over nuance.
Anglicans in the American Revolution
For Anglicans, Revolution offers particular value. Our tradition emphasizes the communion of saints, historical memory, and God’s providential activity without reducing history to hagiography. Anglicans can therefore appreciate both the blessings and the complexities of the founding. Many faithful Anglicans remained loyal to the Crown, while others became ardent patriots. Anglican clergy and laymen also stood among the Revolution’s supporters. Jacob Duché’s prayer before the Continental Congress vividly reminds us that Anglicanism was present at the nation’s birth even as the Revolution transformed the Church itself.
The Revolution reshaped not only a nation but also Anglicanism in America. Severed ties with the Church of England forced American Anglicans to reimagine their ecclesiastical identity, eventually giving rise to the Protestant Episcopal Church and, later, the continuing Anglican movement. Understanding the Revolution therefore helps Anglicans understand their own history. Metaxas’s book also invites readers to consider how religious liberty, constitutional government, moral virtue, and divine providence shaped both the American republic and the Church’s witness within it.
An Unapologetically Patriotic History
Good history should provoke both gratitude and humility. It should remind us that God’s providence often works through imperfect people making difficult choices in uncertain times. Metaxas makes readers care again about the American founding and invites them to revisit a story many have forgotten or never learned. In an age when historical illiteracy has become almost fashionable, that is no small achievement.
Revolution is not the final word on the American founding, nor does it claim to be. Professional historians will continue debating many interpretive questions Metaxas raises. But perhaps that is one of the book’s greatest virtues: it invites readers back into the conversation. It encourages Christians not to surrender history to ideological caricatures but to wrestle honestly with the relationship between faith and the American experiment.
For Anglican readers, that conversation is especially worthwhile. Ours is a tradition rooted in history, nourished by memory, and committed to the conviction that God acts within nations as surely as he acts within his Church. Whether one agrees with all of Metaxas’s conclusions or not, Revolution is engaging, thought-provoking, and unapologetically patriotic. It reminds us that ideas have consequences, faith shapes cultures, and history remains one of God’s most remarkable classrooms.
Image: Revolution, © 2026 Odysseus Books.
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