Religion in the founding of the United States: towards a democracy of the chosen ones

Abstract

Based on the influence of the religious factor, the history of the United States is conceived from its origins as a new beginning of humanity after the straying of men. A return to primitive Christianity as the spirit not only of the Reformation, but also of the succession of prophets or chosen that, going back to Moses, is perpetuated in John Wyclif, Martin Luther and John Calvin, and continues in heroes like John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson y George Washington; in short, the chosen nation, the American people: the democracy of de chosen. Since the Puritan commonwealth indelible trace, the United States represents the rock on which men build sheltered from the diversion of earlier times. Laying the foundations of its civilizing mission in history, Americans think ofthemselves as the true ekklesía: a city upon a hill.