A Nation Wrestles With God

“A wonderfully capacious anthology of writings about America’s unique relationship to religion.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Whether we like it or not, as Americans, we must grapple with God. The struggle is part of our lineage and our legacy, and this extraordinary anthology shows us how.”

—Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being and The Book of Form and Emptiness

“What a collection! In A Nation Wrestles with God, Ilan Stavans shows us that grappling with morality—with questions of right and wrong, with ethical challenges, with the divine—might be America’s oldest and truest national pastime. Both religious believers and skeptics will see themselves and their concerns reflected in this volume, which spans this nation’s history. In this time of national divisiveness, Stavans shows us that even though Americans have never agreed on all the answers, our passion for asking the biggest questions has always connected us.”

—Susan McWilliams Barndt, Claremont McKenna College

“Stavans pulls off the impossible: a searing volume that holds America’s most restless and necessary argument with God, with itself, with the very meaning of nation. With polyphonic sagacity, he guides us through the full, fractious sweep of the republic’s spiritual life, from Navajo night chants and Puritan fire to Douglass’ thunderous abolitionism, Emerson’s transcendentalist rapture, Eisner’s comic-panel theology, and the post-secular wrestlings of Baldwin, Harjo, and Hitchens. Inveterate skeptic and devout believer at once, Stavans makes us feel, with new urgency, that America has never been more alive than in its refusal to stop arguing with God.”

—Frederick Luis Aldama, award-winning author and the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at UT Austin

“OMG, by which I mean 'Oh my gods!' The one or many gods we praise or struggle with, the one or many gods we reject. They are all here in A Nation Wrestles with God, an anthology that offers us an opportunity to read excerpts from the work of a wide range of Americans who engage with concepts of the divine. If ever there were a time when it would be useful to consider the presence or absence of God in American life, this is it. Now, thanks to the brilliant work of Ilan Stavans, we can immerse ourselves in an anthology that just may help us see clearly how diverse, thoughtful, serious, and playful we are and have always been as a people, as a nation.”

—Richard Chess, Professor Emeritus, UNC Asheville, and author of The Loneliest Monk

“'Faith makes its own forms,' said Emerson, and this fascinating anthology shows just how many different forms it has brought forth in America. Christian and Jew, President and slave, witch-hunter and evolutionary biologist—all have their own ideas about God, and only in America could they speak to each other as freely as they do in these pages.”

—Adam Kirsch, author of The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the 20th Century

“While many are turning away from religious faith, Ilan Stavans brings us a collection that renews the inspiring prophetic spirit of America. His collection lifts our hearts and brings us hope.”

—Susanna Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College

"A Nation Wrestles with God, the new anthology edited by Ilan Stavans, is a truly remarkable achievement. What Stavans has managed to accomplish is to find and put together texts written about God from an extraordinarily wide range of American voices across time and place. There are presidents and poets, theologians and novelists, famous men and women writing surprising things about God and people you might never have heard of, sharing their deepest convictions and doubts. The operative word here is “wrestles,” as we encounter statements of belief and unbelief, confidence and confusion. The American experience, the American experiment, is intertwined from the beginning with religion, and in this anthology—so appropriate to appear as we begin the celebration of 250 years since the founding of the nation—we get to see the great multiplicity of views about religion that is an abiding part of this country’s diversity and strength."

—Barry W. Holtz, Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America