In his recent book “Religion and Republic: Christian America from the Founding to the Civil War” (Davenant, 2024), Miles Smith IV, Assistant Professor of History at Hillsdale College, explores the interplay between faith and politics in early America, revealing a more complex picture than current polemics might have us believe. Breaking down his thesis with Providence editor-at-large Robert Nicholson, Dr. Smith talks liberalism and conservatism in US history, nations vs. empires, the Protestant/evangelical divide, the role of “Christian institutionalism,” and the great American golden age—or lack thereof.