Moral Minority
Our Skeptical Founding Fathers
Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 2006.
Format: Book
Description: xvi, 235 pages ; 23 cm
In her lively refutation of modern claims about America's religious origins, Brooke Allen looks back at the late eighteenth century and shows decisively that the United States was founded not on Christian principles at all but on Enlightenment ideas. Moral Minority presents a powerful case that the unique legal framework the Founding Fathers created was designed according to the humanist ideals of Enlightenment thinkers: God entered the picture only as a very minor player, and Jesus Christ was conspicuous by his absence. The guiding spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, Ms. Allen explains, was not Jesus Christ but John Locke. In direct and accessible prose, she provides fascinating chapters on the religious lives of the six men she considers the key Founding Fathers: Franklin, Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton. Far from being the conventional pious Christians we too often imagine, these men were skeptical intellectuals, in some cases not even Christians at all. Moral Minority presents unforgettable images of our iconic founders: Jefferson taking a razor to the Bible and cutting out every miraculous and supernatural occurrence; Washington rewriting speeches others had crafted for him, so as to omit all references to Jesus Christ; Franklin and Adams confiding their doubts about Christ's divinity; Madison expressing deep disapproval over the appointment of chaplains to Congress and the armed forces, and of what we would now call "faith-based" initiatives. Enlivened by generous portions of the founders' own incomparable prose, Moral Minority makes an impassioned and scintillating contribution to the ongoing debate--more heated now than ever before--over the separation of church and state and the role (or lack thereof) of religion in government.
Contents:
Franklin -- Washington -- Adams -- Jefferson -- Madison -- Hamilton -- 1787 and beyond -- The world that produced the founders -- Appendix I : two letters from Jefferson on the common law and Christianity -- Appendix II : Madison's "memorial and remonstrance against religious assessments".
Subjects:
Church and state -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Freedom of religion -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Religion and politics -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Christianity and politics -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Founding Fathers of the United States -- Religious life -- History -- 18th century.
Founding Fathers of the United States -- Biography.
United States -- Religion -- To 1800.
Church and state -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Freedom of religion -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Religion and politics -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Christianity and politics -- United States -- History -- 18th century.
Founding Fathers of the United States -- Religious life -- History -- 18th century.
Founding Fathers of the United States -- Biography.
United States -- Religion -- To 1800.
ISBN:
1566636752 (cloth : alk. paper)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-221) and index.