From Theological Tenet to Political Password

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But in recent history, the idea took on special significance as American national pride suffered the loss of the Vietnam War, the disillusionment of the Watergate era and the failure of the Carter Administration to outmaneuver Iran in the hostage crisis.

"It was the low point of the city on a hill," Wilson said. "Then it is Ronald Reagan who resuscitates the phrase and makes us feel good about ourselves again."

Reagan was very fond of Winthrop, and quoted him both on the campaign trail and from the oval office. "With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today.. we will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see," he said in 1978 in a speech before a political action committee. He returned to Winthrop's vision several times and in several forms, including in July 1984 when he said he did not understand some Americans' fears for their future. "Why, this country is a shining city on a hill," he said.

That led to a famous rebuttal by Mario Cuomo, then the governor of New York, in his address to the Democratic National Convention in July 1984.z,pz. "In fact, Mr. President, this is a nation," Cuomo said in a speech widely regarded as the high point of his own political career. "Mr. President you ought to know that this nation is more a `Tale of Two Cities' than it is just a `Shining City on a Hill.'"

But Reagan had the last word in his farewell address to the nation, when he again invoked the image, this time mentioning Winthrop by name.

"The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined," Reagan said. ". . . in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."

Since then, each American president has had his own city on the hill moment. For George H.W. Bush, it was on the campaign trail when the city on the hill shined so bright it became "a thousand points of light." And Bill Clinton's nod to Winthrop was to adopt the Puritan's idea of "covenant," the notion that America has a special role in the eyes of God.

Many scholars think George W. Bush had his city on a hill moment after Sept. 11 when he framed the war against terror as a moral response, a mission blessed by God that the rest of the world would join in. "America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world," the president said in an address to the nation on Sept. 11, 2001. "And no one will keep that light from shining."

Who among the current crop of candidates - Democrat or Republican - will ultimately take their reframing of Winthrop's vision in the White House remains to be seen. But some scholars feel President Bush has already blown his city on a hill moment. They point to world disapprobation for the war on Iraq and growing discomfort at home at mounting U.S. casualities with no end in sight.

"It is the duty of every president to use images that will unite people as much as possible, but this one doesn't work now because we are so divided," Marty said. "So when President Bush uses the language, as he will in 2004, it will be more about how we should run the city on the hill than that we are a city on the hill."

Haynes also hears echoes of Winthrop in the rhetoric of conservatives. "Look at the `under God' controversy," he said of the ongoing debate about the Pledge of Allegiance. "That is the whole idea of the city on a hill, that a nation has a special role as long as it stays true to the fact that we have been given our blessings and our liberties by God. Justice [Roy] Moore is Winthrop today."

That raises the question "WWWD?" - What Would Winthrop Do if he could see his beloved America today? Would he find it his city on a hill?

Francis Bremer, author of "John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father" and a professor of history at Millerton University in Pennsylvania, thinks the Puritan "would be very disturbed" at the spin given to his metaphor. Most upsetting, he said, would be the way the idea has been taken from a passive one - of America as an example - to an active one -of America carrying its values into other countries.

"I think in the post-20th century world we act on the belief that our system is inherently - whether it is blessed by God or the forces of history - the best way for other people to live and we are going to bring it to them whether they want it or not," he said. "There is a danger in this."

A danger, Haynes said, that was never part of Winthrop's vision. "There is definitely a dark side when we set ourselves up as a special place with a special mission we set ourselves up for a fall."

Still, he and other scholars expect more city on a hill moments as the race accelerates - but again, with a twist. Instead of touting America as the city on a hill for the eyes of the world to admire, Bremer expects the candidates will instead ask Americans to try and make their country a place Winthrop could be proud of.

"I think we will see them turning the question around and saying the eyes of all people are upon us and what do we want them to see," he said. "And I think that ultimately that may be the healthiest course."