This course will explore the interplay of two great animating ideals in America's political history: The Republic of Reason--the belief that by applying the Enlightenment era notion of "Progress through Reason," America could be a model for the world. The City on a Hill--the desire to make our New World nation a truly Godly community that foreshadows the Second Coming. These seemingly incompatible ideals converged to make the American Revolution possible and ever since have performed a dance of alternating convergence and repulsion that has often, as seen today, been at the center of our political life.