Claim. Protestant America is structurally a second Rome — the Puritan crossing of the Atlantic recapitulated the providential move from Italy to Britain to the New World — and America therefore inherits both Rome’s authority and Rome’s risk: failure to sacrifice itself for the world.
Elaboration. SMM gives the typology in one sentence: “America was a new dimension of the Vatican in Rome, but one centering on Protestantism. That is what America is” (1.3. America is the Rome of the twentieth century, 81-279, 1975.12.29). The Puritan founding is read as a providential resurgence: “Didn’t the Puritans of Christianity cross over to plant this sprout in America? The Protestant zealots of Europe crossed the Atlantic. These Puritans did not leave there for a better life. They crossed the Atlantic, at the risk of their lives, to practice their faith. God’s providential focal point began, from that resolution, in the face of death” (229-295, 1992.4.13). And the risk inherited from Rome is concrete: “What caused the downfall of Rome? God was trying to save the world, but the Romans took pride in themselves, above all others. Rome should have aspired to world unification by sacrificing itself as an offering before the coming Lord, but Rome wanted to go only in one direction.” America may yet repeat that failure.
See also. csg-rome-failed-to-unify-the-world-through-christianity · csg-civilization-circuit-river-to-pacific · csg-pacific-era-comes-because-jesus-lost-his-body-in-asia