Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The Gospel of Positivity - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."


The Gospel of Positivity

Faith in self and faith in God became so intermixed in Norman Vincent Peale’s philosophy as to be almost the same thing. Barton Swaim reviews “Surge of Piety” by Christopher Lane

image from article

Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal

Excerpt:
The real story of Norman Vincent Peale, to my mind, isn’t his ongoing influence but the lack of it. He rose to prominence at a time when American culture had unified as never before, when it seemed possible to rally the whole nation around a shared reverence for “God” and “religion,” however defined. Hence Eisenhower’s remark: “Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply-felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.”

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