The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Hardcover)

by David L. Holmes (Author) "On my arrival in the United States, the famous French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville observed in the early nineteenth century, "the religious aspect of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Church of England (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In demystifying what has been argument fodder for over 200 years, religion scholar Holmes (A Brief History of the Episcopal Church; A Nation Mourns) sorts through the carefully constructed (and ambiguous or contradictory) versions of the personal beliefs the United States's founding fathers presented to the outside world to present a sound case for what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others did or didn't do on Sundays. Holmes's subjects were acutely sensitive both to the dangers of state-sponsored religion as well as their reputations as leaders and went to what might seem like absurd lengths to cloak their religious leanings (Washington, for instance, rarely mentions church in his journals and, when he did attend, would leave service prior to communion), making Holmes's research and conclusions feats of deduction based on clues gleaned from letters, government documents, second- and third-hand accounts and educated speculation about motivations. Despite its strong points (including a wonderful epilogue on the religious beliefs of presidents from Gerald Ford to George W. Bush), the desiccating tone is one of technical scholarship that may turn off casual readers looking for a narrative history of this hot-button issue.
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From Booklist
Against the Religious Right's insistence that the Founding Fathers were conventional Christians, Holmes pits facts about religion and religious language in late colonial and early republican America. He doesn't consider all the signers of the Declaration and the Constitution, and he concedes that private convictions are ultimately unknowable. Hence, his evidence is partial and circumstantial. Yet his argument is very persuasive. After precis of religion in the colonies circa 1770, the Anglican tradition in America, and deism, which was then at the height of its influence, he turns to Franklin and the first five presidents, inspecting their church attendance, observance of sacraments, and the terms they used to refer to the deity and religion. All six seem more deistic than orthodox; that is, they inclined against the Trinity and other supernatural concepts. To point up their practical deism, Holmes invokes the contrasting orthodoxy of the presidents' wives and daughters (Abigail Adams, however, was as deistic as John) and three other founders (Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay). A modest but definite triumph of temperate historical argumentation. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195300920
• ISBN-13: 978-0195300925
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,311 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read !!!! 10 stars !!, May 8, 2006

By	MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I bought The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes along with American Gospel : God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham and found The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David L. Holmes to be superior as far as learning the most about the founding fathers and what they believed along with what their wives believed and how they reared their children.

What makes this book a book you hate to set down is the indepth and interesting history of not only what they believed but how their beliefs evolved as they grew and matured. The first chapter deals mainly with the varies sects in the American colonies in the late 1770's, and how it varied from New England to the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies.

Chapter 3 is awesome as the author discusses The Enlightenment Religion of Deism. In fact I believe that if most Americans were to read this chapter they may well call themselves Deists. Then in Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, the authors specifically writes indepth about the Religious Views of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. He also writes about Paine whom I have grown to admire even more! In chapter 11 the author writes about the wives and children of the founding fathers and why Christian orthodoxy was so appealing to the women. As on page 111 where the author notes 'Third, any religion a woman embraced had to address suffering. In early America women constantly faces the specter of suffering, both physical and emotional,' and 'Fourth, Deism may not have accounted for the abundant mystery of life satisfactory enough to persuade women.' On page 110 he had noted 'Second, women were barred from another institution that propagated Deism: college. Young men would enter such institutions as Harvard or William and Mary, read and discuss such authors as Paine, Voltaire, Rousseau, Allen and Palmer, and often change their views of Christianity.'

Cannot recommend this book highly enough!!

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate, beautifully written account of an important and timely subject, May 8, 2006

By	Hoodlum (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews

After reading this book quite carefully, I had to scratch my head in bemused wonder when I encountered the reviewer's words "the desiccating tone is one of technical scholarship that may turn off casual readers looking for a narrative history of this hot-button issue." The tone is not one of "technical scholarship" at all. Nor is the prose at all dry. More accurate, I think, to say that this book is well informed by a lifetime of reading in American religious history and is hence as judicious and balanced in its judgments as anyone could possibly hope for; in its tone, then, it is not "technical" but well informed. And the style is not desiccated (!) but instead warm and welcoming. The book is written in clear, well-crafted sentences devoid of academic jargon and pretentiousness: prose that consistently keeps the reader in mind, indeed welcomes them.

For example, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers begins with a chapter called "Religion in the American Colonies in 1770": a topic that could seem dry but which, in Holmes's hands, becomes a richly appealing account, a well-narrated story of what a visitor to this country would have encountered in 1770 up and down the Atlantic Seaboard--a surprisingly variegated landscape of religions.

The succeeding chapters provide all that the beginning inquirer would want to know about the religious beliefs not only of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, et al., but also of the wives and daughters of the Founding Fathers. There are surprises here as well. Holmes carefully and clearly delineates the differences between a Deist and an orthodox Christian--and the gradations between these two religious stances.

Beyond everything else, this book is a terrific introduction to American religion. The fact that it leaves one wishing to explore further the relationship between religious belief and American statesmanship is all to the good. This study also fills in a gap created by the hyper-attention paid of late to the religious beliefs of the enigmatic "Re-founding" Father Abraham Lincoln. Highly recommended!

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important information about the Founding Fathers, September 7, 2006

By	E. Johnson (El Cajon, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

First of all, I should point out that I am an Evangelical Christian. I suppose that some Fundamentalists might get upset over a book like this because Holmes calls a spade a spade. He comes across as not having an agenda, either from a Christian or secular humanist point of view. As he points out, many of the Founding Fathers were Deist/Unitarian. At the same time, there were important Founding Fathers whom Holmes proves should be considered Evangelical Christian (i.e. Samuel Adams, John Jay) along with a number of the Fathers' wives. Whether or not these Founding Fathers were Evangelicals, what I think is important is that this country was founded on religious principles, even if they were not conservative in their theology.

What I liked about this book is that Holmes made individual examinations of some of the most important founders, including the first five presidents and Benjamin Franklin. I'm not going to say that I'm a huge history buff of the 18th century, but the stories told by Holmes easily kept my attention. His writing style is very scholarly yet very easy to read. The layperson is not going to have to spend large amounts of time with a dictionary in hand because Holmes is not that kind of a writer.

Finally, I'd like to explain how I bought this book in the first place. I was at Monticello and saw this in the bookstore. I spent several minutes looking through it, paying special attention to the section on Jefferson. Less than a week later, I was in Williamsburg, VA (where Holmes is currently employed) standing in the Episcopal church near The College of William and Mary where Jefferson had a church box toward the front of the church. I asked the female volunteers of this liberal church about Jefferson. When they told me that Jefferson was a Christian, I used some of Holmes' information to show how Jefferson was probably a Deist or possibly a Unitarian. They denied this information and proceeded to give me a letter to the editor of a local newspaper explaining that Jefferson claimed to be a Christian. According to them, Jefferson should therefore be considered a Christian. This made no sense, I explained, because anyone can claim to be a "Christian," but the proof is in the pudding. Thus, I decided I needed to purchase this book and read it so that, if the situation ever came up again, I could point to a book published by Oxford University Press that would show the truth.