Customer comments on this selection.
 Enlightening perspective
The Faiths of the Founding Fathers is a very brief, interesting, and insightful book about the religious beliefs of America's founding fathers, most of whom were not Christian as we define that term today. Most were Diests or Christian Diests which is a belief based on man's innate ability to reason and be logical. Therefore the more outlandish Biblical stories in the Bible, like the trinity, the resurrection of Jesus, miracles, and the virgin birth, were rejected, but an overall belief in God and in the goodness of Jesus and his teachings were retained. There were exceptions, like Samuel Adams who was a devout traditional Christian, but for the most part the enlightenment, as well as the promise of religious freedom in America, made for a very diverse and tolerant colonial environment where dozens of Christians sects thrived alongside Judaism and Catholicism. Dieism in its purist form, practiced by Thomas Pain, is very anti-Christian. However, most of the founding fathers were Christian Diests who put reason above all else but still honored the teachings of Christ. Because the tenants of Dieism (much of which overlap with the teachings of modern freemasonry) sometime feel more like philosophy than religion, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in both religion and philosophy. The book also goes into what the general religious landscape at the time of the revolution looked like, along with the religious beliefs of the wives of the founding fathers. The final chapter is a very interesting overview of the religious beliefs of the last five U.S. Presidents. A well written, scholarly and overall excellent book.
 Myths of the Founding Fathers
This book, though flawed, is an interesting and charming survey of the religious atmosphere of eighteenth century America. I especially enjoyed the accounts of the lives of Washington, Adams, Jay and others. One of the strengths of the book is its analysis of the religious views of the wives of some of the major founders.
I ordered this book because it was touted to be a moderate statement on the Christian vs. Enlightenment debate about the nation's founding. But what I discovered is that Holmes generally gives more credence to the idea that "Deism influenced, in one way or another, most of the political leaders who designed the new American government." Although Holmes does recognize that there were some orthodox Christians among the founders, he places emphasis upon Deism and Unitarianism as the guiding faiths of the new system. In this regard his views are clearly in opposition to those of John Eidsmoe, (Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of our Founding Fathers), who claimed that most of the founders were orthodox in their beliefs. Eidsmoe states that deism was the religion of only about 5 and one half percent of the founders. He argues that confessed deists were not permitted to hold public office around the time of the Constitutional Convention as evidenced by the laws of the period.
Holmes seems to accept the idea that Christianity and reason were considered to be in opposition. But this spin has led to a number of rather misleading historical characterizations. For example, Holmes claims that the work of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, provided the foundation of the Enlightenment in England despite the fact that all three men were orthodox Christians. Again, Homes argues that Locke regarded human reason to be the test of truth "rather than religious dogma and mystery." Yet John Locke, the philosopher, wrote a book entitled the The Reasonableness of Christianity, believed in miracles, the authority of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On page 47, Holmes writes about indirect references to the Deity with such phrases as "Nature's God," "Creator," and "divine Providence" calling them the postulations of Deists. Apparently, Holmes is ignorant of the fact that these phrases are nothing less than the intellectual property of the Christian Church and were used for centuries prior to the Enlightenment. The formula "Law of Nature and of Nature's God" used in the Declaration of Independence is actually a reference to the theological correlation between general and special revelation. The term, "law of nature," has been cited by Locke, Calvin, Hooker, Coke, Blackstone, Rutherford, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The origins of this ancient phrase have nothing to do with deism or with any sort of nature religion. For these reasons, I find the book to be a bit too slanted toward the Carl Becker deistic America thesis.
 A slanted view
David Holmes seems to be on a mission to disqualify our Founding Fathers as Christians. He picks a few names, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Monroe and Madison as if these were the only ones who had any influence in our early government. Further, he wants to make each of them a Deist when, in fact, most of their writings lead to a very strong Christian base. Like any person in public office, some speeches and writings can be taken out of context and you can easily make the writer or speaker appear to be something they are not. An in depth study of any of these six men will prove they lean far more to a Christian base than Deism. In addition, Holmes leaves out more than 30 other Founding Fathers who were very strong Christians. Somehow, many authors today have a goal of trying to convince us that our country was not founded upon Christian principles. A good source to confirm our country's foundational basis is David Barton's book, "Original Intent". I think Holmes book is slanted and short on factual information.
 Eye Opening
This book was very well written. The author made the case that some of the founding fathers were not necessarily Christian, but Deists. His conclusions stem from letters written to, and from, various people that had contact with them (friends, family, clergymen, etc.) - which makes sense; however, some of the author's assumptions (i.e. the language the "fathers" used in writing and speeches) about how they referred to God (the Almighty, Nature's God, etc.) is not necessarily the best way to prove that the founding fathers were not Christian.
It certainly shed some light, although not definitive, on the faiths of our founding fathers and their families.
He Didn't Chop Down The Cherry Tree, Either
Shortly after Washington's death, certain writers began trying to depict him as a devout orthodox Christian. Mason Weem's book of 1800 was representative of this group and was reprinted regularly with newly added tales about Washington the pious man of prayer. The memorable story about the cherry tree came in the fifth edition in 1806 but the disreputable Weems was easily discredited. Jefferson, Madison, and many others disputed all these efforts. "Sir, he was a Deist," one of Washington's pastors declared upon discussion of the question.
Franklin and the first five presidents were All Deists, a minimalist religious belief system without an organized hierarchy that sprouted from the Enlightenment. For the straight story about their beliefs and the varied Christian denominations of the colonies, this book can't be beat.
The excellent reviews already on this site say it all. I'll just add that "Faiths of the Founding Fathers" is well organized, authoritatively researched, extensively documented, and unusually readable. History buffs and the general public will like this book.
DB
|
