The following are quotes from Surge of Piety: Norman Vincent Peale and the Remaking of American Religious Life by Christopher Lane, Yale University Press, 2016. I had gotten the book after reading this review at The Gospel Coalition. I was hoping it would give me some insight into the mind-meld between conservative Evangelicals and politics. The reviewer suspects there is a connection between Peale's teaching and President Trump. While that may be true, I am more interested in Peale's influence on the average professing Evangelical and the morphing of Christianity into "God, self, and country," which is civil religion in a nut shell. As to who "God" is, I think He is left conveniently vague enough to satisfy anyone's agenda. Amy Mantravadi just wrote a post on The Ascent of Trump and Impact on Evangelical Ethics. It is spot on. Her post is the main reason, why I finally started reading about Peale. As the Bible says, there is nothing new under the s...