Skallagrim
Banned
Post-Reformation, diversity of denominations, none of them "established" was arguably good for Christian belief in America. Could this have been the case from the beginning, or was a prolonged period of establishment and a dominant Catholic tradition necessary to mold society to make it ready for the American model to eventually emerge? I think @IamtheEmps and @Skallagrim would say it was.
Indeed I would. By the time we get to colonisation of the Americas, there is a whole notion of 'Christendom' that's well-established. Even when leaving its organisational trappings behind, the 'cultural background' of Christianity is just there. I have some trouble seeing a realistic way for such a universal framework of just flat-out assumed norms and ideas to arise when the very premise is that the unified structure that produced/codified them never exists.