The Faiths of the Founding Fathers

by David L. Holmes

Paper Book, 2006

Status

Available

Publication

Oxford University Press (2006), Edition: 1, 240 pages

Description

It is not uncommon to hear Christians argue that America was founded as a Christian nation. But how true is this claim?. In this compact book, David L. Holmes offers a clear, concise and illuminating look at the spiritual beliefs of our founding fathers. He begins with an informative account of the religious culture of the late colonial era, surveying the religious groups in each colony. In particular, he sheds light on the various forms of Deism that flourished in America, highlighting the profound influence this intellectual movement had on the founding generation. Holmes then examines the i

Original publication date

2006-05-01

Language

ISBN

0195300920 / 9780195300925

Local notes

Given by Br Evan Watson, 2018

Rating

½ (22 ratings; 3.8)

User reviews

LibraryThing member vpfluke
I found this a fascinating book. David Holmes has done quite well disentangling the religious stances of the founding fathers of the United States. There are many today who believe that all of them wre firm Christians, while another group tends to see most of them as pure deists. The reality is
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quite mixed. The quintessential Deist is Ethan Allen, followed by Thomas Jefferson. George Washington and Abigail Adams would be classfied as Desiteic Crhristians, while Patrick Henry would be an orthodox Christian (also Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay). John Adams was Unitarian, but a firm church goer with some deistic tendencies. Benjamin Franklin was a moralist who frequently attended Chruch of England services, but disdained orthodoxy.

One chaper is devoted to the tendency of wives and daughters of the founding fathers to be orthodox Christians. The final chapter brings the story up to the present and discusses religious beliefs of Presidents Gerald Ford through George W. Bush.

I wasn't sure I was going to like the book when I picked it up, but became quite enthralled with the descriptions of the various people talked about. This book is a good corrective to the grea amount of misinformation about the religious life of the statesmen who created the United States.
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LibraryThing member nyambol
Good, well-researched account of a selected number of important figures of the period and how they related both to church and to religion. Makes judgements based on the known behaviors, letters and speeches as well as on comments by contemporaries. Very little free-lancing or speculating. Trails
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off toward the end by considering minor figures in whom our interest is not so great. Written as an extract of the dense historical text for a layman and works in that regard.
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LibraryThing member JeffChadwell
I thought it was a great book. I've known since high school that many of our Founding Fathers considered themselves Deists, but I never really knew what that meant. This book gave me a much better idea of what Deists believe and showed how this belief system influenced the birth of our nation.
LibraryThing member vverse23
Effectively pokes dozens of holes in the concept that the founding fathers somehow intended the United States to be a Christian nation. Although a handful of the framers were orthodox Christians, the tendency of most was toward Deism, Unitarianism or simply non-religious philosophy. While many of
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the teachings of Jesus and Christianity were broadly respected, and the founding documents contain some of that language and spirit, there's little support for the claim that the earliest Americans somehow intended this to be a uniquely Christian nation. Sadly, this meme seems to be gaining traction in the political sphere.
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