In his book God of Liberty; A religious History of the American Revolution, Thomas Kidd provided an insight into the civil spirituality of Colonial America. He argued that this civil spirituality was the "framework in which to define, justify, and fight a war and establish the new American nation" (Kidd, 9). He also argues that previous wars and religious movements united the colonists in their views of Protestantism, anti-Catholicism and liberty, and those were enclosed in a realm in which politics and religion converged in order to render a balance between state and citizens.
If power corrupts kings and bishops, to what extend was it safe to consider religion (and its theologies) a source (main) of virtue for the proper function of the state?