The leaders of the American Revolution, unlike the leaders of the French revolution, did not set out to erase religion. Indeed, the very first act of the Continental Congress was to pray to Divine Providence in the face of the British bombardment of Boston. In establishing a new model of self-government, the Founders believed that they were not only acting according to reason and common sense, but also obeying a religious duty. Benjamin Franklin proposed as their motto: “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.” In telling the story of the forgotten—if not deliberately ignored—role of faith in America’s beginnings, Michael Novak probes the innermost religious conviction of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and other of our Founders. He shows that while the American eagle could not have taken flight without the empirical turn of mind embodied in John Locke’s teaching on the ends of government and the consent of the governed, the men who made America also believed that liberty depends as much on faith as on reason. In the course of his illustrious career, Michael Novak has written several prize-winning books on theology and philosophy. In On Two Wings he has created a profound mediation on American history, and on human nature and destiny as well.

In this book two college professors explain how believing and reasoning are two human activities that may be integrated to form a complete view of human existence. They take their title from the opening of John Paul II's encyclical Fides et Ratio, which speaks of the human spirit rising on the two wings of faith and reason to stretch toward the truth that is available to all. In the first part of the book, the authors offer a basic yet engaging encounter with traditional arguments for and against God's existence. They grapple with doubts arising from the question of evil and the discoveries of contemporary natural science. The final chapters take up questions from ethics and politics that impact the way individuals and communities choose to structure their lives. This book is non-dogmatic; it seeks to probe the contours of the questions asked by inquiring minds. The authors fairly address arguments supporting and opposing their own viewpoints while using simple analogies designed for non-specialists. Thus they provide the best available starting point for confidently entering into the greatest conversation of all time.