Conclusion

Departing from Alexis de Tocqueville’s discussion of American religion as a political institution that strengthens the moral tie as political ties are relaxed, the conclusion briefly restates the major arguments of the book: (1) that the authors discussed treated the issue of religion in a republic by using ideas and tropes drawn from New England anti-Jacobin sentiment during and after the French Revolution; (2) that this led them simultaneously to oppose and to reinforce secularity as it appeared in various forms: Enlightenment reason, pluralistic belief, and the technocratic utility of state church establishment; and (3) that their writings thus engage with enduring questions regarding whether and how morality and virtue should be fostered in a diverse republic for the common good, avoiding pitfalls of narrow-minded bigotry or neoliberal elevation of private individual interest. The conclusion also considers how these arguments and the book as a whole responds to two trends in literary scholarship: the study of women writers rooted in feminist recovery and the turn away from historicist critique seen in recent work by Rita Felski and others.