NAME the American Founding Fathers, or at least the ones everyone knows, and then describe their religion. George Washington: reticent, probably lukewarm; Jefferson: accused of atheism, disliked organised religion, basically a deist; Franklin: another deist; Hamilton: youthfully religious, lost his enthusiasm, not keen on churchgoing. Madison: largely indifferent. Only really John Adams and John Jay can lay claim to piety.
Add to this the Fathers undeniable enthusiasm for Enlightenment rationalism, the new nations desire to keep Church and State separate, and the First Amendment to the Constitution (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion), and you seem to have built up a pretty godless, or at least God-uninterested, picture.
One of the many merits of Daniel Dreisbachs book is to show how misleading this picture is. Against this popular image, the Bible was referenced more often than any other text, or even writer, during the Revolutionary period. The most prominent Founding Fathers were not typical of American revolutionaries, and even they were steeped in, and often fascinated by, biblical ideas and figures.
Dreisbach shows how prevalent the Bible was in early American culture and politics: think England or Scotland c.1650, and you wouldnt be far wrong. He also demonstrates, in the books best chapter, that the Revolutionaries political theorising, in particular their justification for rebellion, would have been impossible (or at least unrecognisable) without two preceding centuries of Protestant resistance theology: Vindiciae contra tyrannos was an extremely useful text when you found yourself defending liberty against those you considered to be tyrants.
Dreisbach recognises that the Fathers biblical rhetoric was sometimes only skin deep, borrowing figures and phrases to lend political speechifying a weight, dignity, and significance that it would not otherwise have had. Nevertheless, to dismiss it all as theological window-dressing is mistaken. Even when the Bible was not embedded in the Fathers lives (and chapter three shows that it often was), it underpinned and defined the sense of justice, rights, duty, liberty, providence, and destiny that created the new nation.
Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers is a scholarly book, drawing on an abundance of source material and demonstrating an admirable familiarity with the period and the Bible. It is also somewhat repetitive: having established that the Fathers were deeply informed by biblical language, narrative and ideas, Dreisbach effectively goes on repeating the conclusion with different examples and from different angles. By the end, you have well and truly got the point.
Still, it is a point that needs to be got. In the United States polarised climate, this book will remind culture warriors that the nations robust constitutional secularism was grounded, paradoxically, in its equally robust Christianity.
Nick Spencer is Research Director at Theos.
Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers
Daniel Dreisbach
OUP 19.99
(978-0-19-998793-1)
Church Times Bookshop 18
Link:
Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers by Daniel Dreisbach - Church Times
- Rationalism | Psychology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia - December 12th, 2016 [December 12th, 2016]
- rationalism facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com ... - December 22nd, 2016 [December 22nd, 2016]
- Rationalism in Philosophy - January 3rd, 2017 [January 3rd, 2017]
- Rationalism vs. Empiricism Essay - 797 Words - StudyMode - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- Logic: Rationalism vs. Empiricism - Theology - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- Rationalism verses Empiricism - dummies.com - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- Taking Liberties With Workable Liberty - Big Think - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Go for introspection, Left parties told - The Hindu - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Look back in anger, unplugged | Asia Times - Asia Times - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Food by the Book: Philosophy, love, steak - Muskogee Daily Phoenix - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Hypocrisy isn't the problem. Nihilism is - Los Angeles Times - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The separation of church and state - Helena Independent Record - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Don't become a pawn in the NHL's Olympic Games - Fear the Fin - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Australia's new political divide: 'globalists' versus 'patriots' - The Sydney Morning Herald - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Laura Akin: Overwhelming majority of the Founding Fathers were Christian - Modesto Bee - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Hecker reemerges with more text-based synthesis on two new releases on Editions Mego - Tiny Mix Tapes - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the ... - The Times (subscription) - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Hanson denies Liberal preference hypocrisy - SBS - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- When religion rules social life - Daily News & Analysis - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Will science go rogue against Donald Trump? - Socialist Worker Online - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Valentine's Day and Romance - Commonweal (blog) - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Camden Haven Courier - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Warrnambool Standard - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - The Northern Daily Leader - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Western Advocate - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Canadian architecture firm discusses design in the Midwest - Iowa State Daily - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Why sports industry sides with transgenders - WND.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Arrival - slantmagazine - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Americans 'plain dumb' - Hastings Tribune - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- 'Modi combines Savarkar and neoliberalism': Pankaj Mishra on why this is the age of anger - Scroll.in - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Biography examines political motivations of Montaigne - UChicago News - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Daily Advertiser - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Will the Science Community Go Rogue Against Donald Trump? - Truth-Out - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- The Red94 Podcast: On the Boogie Cousins trade - Red94 - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Refugee resettlement study bill passes North Dakota House, Democrat calls it mean-spirited - Bismarck Tribune - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Refugee resettlement study bill passes ND House, Democrat calls it ... - Jamestown Sun - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- P. Sridhar - The Hindu - The Hindu - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- The Magical Rationalism of Elon Musk and the Prophets of AI - New York Magazine - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- There is an Is - Patheos (blog) - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Letter to the Editor: Banning Immigrants on the Basis of Faith Has Hudson Valley Roots - Patch.com - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- You Don't Have To Choose Between Alt-Right And Regressive Left - Huffington Post Canada - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Encountering Change: A Chaplain's Perspective - Patheos (blog) - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Freemasonry Catholics' Deadly Foe - Church Militant - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Modernism and Its Rages - City Journal - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- In Scorsese's adaptation of Endo's novel, a stark depiction of statism against religion - National Review - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Outcry over Dalai Lama threatens free speech | The Daily Cardinal - The Daily Cardinal - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- When a guitar and Sarangi took over Qalandar's shrine - The Express Tribune - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Whyalla News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Review: 'Target in the Night' is punchy, graceful, ambiguous - The Daily Herald - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Meet the Group of Extreme Rationalists Bent on Cheating Death - Signature Reads - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Barnaby Joyce condemns WA Liberals' preference deal with One Nation - Eyre Peninsula Tribune - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Architecture's Pritzker Prize lauds Spanish trio for 'a strong sense of place' - The Globe and Mail - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- The ideas election | The Indian Express - The Indian Express - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Serpents, owl men and demon dogs - BBC News - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Why America Can't Afford to Get Into a Trade War with China - The National Interest Online - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Reason, Creativity and Freedom: The Communalist Model - Truth-Out - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Pankaj Mishra's 'Age Of Anger' Is A Flawed But Fascinating Intellectual History - Swarajya - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Thomas Isaac budget: Split between populism and Marxist rationalism - Times of India - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Philharmonic program celebrates passion, youth - Albuquerque Journal - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Interview with Deo Ssekitooleko Representative of Center for Inquiry International Uganda - Conatus News - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Is Democracy Dying Before Our Eyes In America? OpEd - Eurasia Review - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- SBCC Presents 'A Flea in Her Ear' - Santa Barbara Independent - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- A French Surrealist's Eclectic Remembrances of His Cohort, Finally in English - Hyperallergic - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Junk restrictive faith-based laws: Mumbai atheists - Daily News & Analysis - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- How to Use Imagination to Grow Your Business - Business 2 Community - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Martyn Lawrence Bullard's Sumptuous Palm Springs Hideaway - Architectural Digest - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Saturday (novel) - Wikipedia - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Abortion Debate Poisoned By 'Pro-Choice' And 'Pro-Life' Labels - Huffington Post Canada - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Stand on Tradition - The Weekly Standard - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- The bewildered present-day world - The New Indian Express - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- I watched Alex Jones give his viewers health advice. Here's what I ... - Vox - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- How James Ramsey of RAAD Studio, Carlos Arnaiz of CAZA, and BalletCollective turned design into dance - The Architect's Newspaper - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Going overboard with cow protection - Kasmir Monitor - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Anti-Intellectualism Is Just As Revolutionary As Liberalismand Much More Dangerous - Slate Magazine - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Pakistani thought process - Daily Times - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- French president to the resistance: The world believes in you - Shareblue Media - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Sophisticated Man Is Stupid - American Spectator - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- COLUMN: The statistical fallacy - The Auburn Plainsman - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Modi governments greatest trick: Hate the intellectual - DailyO - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- A labyrinth is coming to Washington - Observer-Reporter - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]