"Before the Enlightenment and the recourse to science and reason in historical explanation, most societies believed that the unfolding of events followed divine guidance. Even into the 19th century, chroniclers of the American story sprinkled their narratives with references to the hand of Providence. They interpreted the conquest of the West, the flowering of democracy, and the rise of the United States to greatness as the result of a supernal blessing. 'A superintending Providence, that overrules the designs, and defeats the projects of men, remarkably upheld the spirit of the Americans,' reads but one such passage, from Mercy Otis Warren's classic History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805), 'and caused events that had for a time a very unfavorable aspect, to operate in favor of independence and peace.'
"This faith-based theory of history resembles Bush's. In his Vanity Fair article, Halberstam interpreted Bush's recent talk of history as a puzzling departure from his previous inclination to cite 'instinct and religious faith' as the underpinnings of his decision-making. If Bush sees history as a divine plan, the contradiction disappears."
In Slate, David Greenberg examines George W. Bush's Philosophy of History.
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