Customer Reviews

Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love

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Frank J. Williams, founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum, in Civil War Book Review (Spring 2010):

"Weaving a rich tapestry of insights from political science and literature and American religious history and political theory, Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love is a major contribution to the study of American political identity. Grant N. Havers makes plain that civic charity, while commonly rejected as irrelevant or even harmful to political engagement, has been integral to our national character, even if it is not a panacea for the rest of the world. Nor should it be 'a quasi-religious mission to spread democracy' which 'may continue to harm the very image and stability of the nation' (182)."

Paul Gottfried also reviews this book:

"I recommend highly Grant Havers's incisive study of Lincoln as a rhetorician. Unlike recent hagiography on Lincoln, which celebrates him as a precursor of global democratic revolution or the Obama administration, Havers examines Lincoln as a champion of a specifically nineteenth-century American Protestant worldview. He shows that Lincoln's opposition to slavery came out of an explicitly Christian view of charity, although, as Havers insists, this view did not require Lincoln to wage a bloody civil war in order to free slaves or to inflict a vengeful and corrupt Reconstruction upon the defeated South afterwards.

"The view Havers presents is essentially the one that the Southern conservative Richard Weaver expounded in his study of Lincoln's rhetoric. Although sympathetic to the Lost Cause, Weaver was so moved by Lincoln's arguments from principle that he favorably contrasted them to the speeches of Edmund Burke, the renowned opponent opponent of the French revolution who argued from expedience. Among the many merits of this gracefully composed and well documented monograph is that it makes clear why generations of small-town, devoutly Protestant Republicans memorized Lincoln's speeches as models of what they were, namely, Christian charity. One can of course appreciate these speeches without hating the Southern conservative tradition or disdaining such Christian gentlemen and gallant warriors as Lee and Jackson.

"Nowhere does Havers suggest that these loyalties are incompatible. Nor does he defend the carnage caused by the Late Unpleasantness. What he focuses on is Lincoln's religious vision, as reflected in his oratory. Speaking for myself, I fully agree with Havers's response to Lincoln as a public speaker. His speeches, with their quotations from the King James Bible used to brilliant effect, are among the most moving that have been given in the English tongue." (October 15, 2009)

Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love is a remarkable re-examination of the role of Christian faith, love, and charity in the politics of Lincoln's era. Lincoln himself considered the Christian ideal of "loving thy neighbor as oneself" an indictment of slavery; author Grant N. Havers further explains how an effective democracy can only thrive when it is charitable toward all, and only those who embrace such an ideal of universal love and charity, as propagated by the moral standard of Christian love, can be successful in implementing and building democracy. Since World War I, political and philosophical thinkers have postulated that democracy is sufficiently ethical as a strictly secular institution, without the cornerstone of Christian love; Havers persuasively argues against this widespread belief and notes that it would have been alien to many of America's founders and to Lincoln. A solid re-examination of the philosophical, historical, and practical role of Christian charity in Lincoln's legacy, Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love is a thought-provoking read and worth extended study (especially given America's current struggles to bring democracy to non-Christian peoples and nations) regardless of whether one agrees with the author's premises.