Wilbanks suggests that Smith articulated a southern perspective that constituted a radically distinctive justification for the American Revolution, a view drawn from Smith's notion of a righteous community. Contrary to Puritan teachings of individual rights and responsibilities, which often served as a validation for revolution, Smith's call for righteous community also justified the War of Independence. While New England republicans worked to separate the business of church and state, Smith insisted that in spirit the two were inseparable. His theology enabled him to join with revolutionaries who held quite different beliefs, and his rhetorical strategies allowed him to be heard more clearly and effectively than other public figures who held similar philosophies.
Wilbanks investigates Smith's rhetorical strategies in light of Max Weber's analysis of the evolution of religion in society and Robert Bellah's work on American civil religion. Wilbanks also integrates the perspectives of philosophers and theorists Mircea Eliade, Emile Durkheim, and Kenneth Burke to explicate Smith's rhetoric of the righteous community.
