There’s a common view of religious history that holds that the further back you go, the stronger the smell of brimstone and the more conservative the beliefs. It isn’t true, and it obscures how much the human hand makes the world, including our ideas of the sacred. Joseph L. Locke’s new book One State Under God: A History of Religion in Texas is an important reminder that the conservative evangelical Christianity that dominates Texas, and through it has consolidated its influence over the country, was not a natural outgrowth of Christianity itself, but a product of historical developments.

Texas today is at the forefront of the campaign to tear down the wall between church and state. The Bible has been reintroduced in Texas classrooms, along with a new law requiring classrooms to display the protestant version of the Ten Commandments. Texas gave the country the prosperity gospel preached by televangelists, including the megachurch pastor and multimillionaire Joel Osteen. The state has been the proving ground for a fiery marriage between evangelicalism and conservatism. Religion has been woven through Texas history, and in turn Texas has woven a particular form of religion into American life.

But in One State Under God, Locke shows that the marriage of Texas conservatism and evangelicalism was never preordained. Indeed, Texas was once considered a “godless” land.