Author Kerry Walters wrote in the Introduction to this 2011 book, “this book deals with a revolution in religious and ethical thought, one that started modestly enough in the beginning but swelled to inflammatory militancy toward the eighteenth century’s end. In the process, it helped to change the way in which American religious leaders practiced theology, as well as influenced the direction of popular religious sensitivity. This revolution, which the first major widespread challenge to Christian orthodoxy in America, was spearheaded by a group of thinkers who can be called ‘rational infidels.’ These men defended a religion of nature and reason known then and now as deism.” (Pg. 7)
He continued, “they dismissed… the supernaturalist doctrines of miracles and special revelation, argued that neither Scripture nor ecclesial tradition possessed divine authority or internal consistency, and refused to accept either the divinity of Jesus or the orthodox trinitarian definition of the Godhead. Such doctrines, they charged, violated ordinary human experience and were antithetical to the dictates of reason. Belief in them… also insulted the majesty and dignity of God. Even more radically, many (but not all) of the American deists also argued that the Christian religion exerted a pernicious moral influence upon humankind… it was also a fundamental obstacle to the improvement of humankind and the amelioration of social and political injustices.” (Pg. 8)
He adds, “In the eyes of their orthodox theological and political opponents, they were loathsome apostates, traitors to the ways of both God and religion… one thing was clear… the gauntlet these rational infidels threw down before Christianity could not be ignored. Orthodoxy in the United States would not reel again from such a sustained onslaught against its cherished beliefs until the late nineteenth-century debate sparked by Darwinism.” (Pg. 9)
He observes, “Ironically, the Christian establishment’s rather hysterical reaction to the spread of deism only served to keep the movement in the public eye. Men of the cloth relentlessly blasted the ‘new infidelity’ from their pulpits, unwittingly arousing their parishioners’ already lively curiosity about this threat to orthodox hegemony.” (Pg. 22)
He summarizes, “Less radical then French atheism, which in part was shaped by its background of overpowering church and state oppression, but more militant than the staidly liberal character of British deism, American deism in retrospect can be seen as occupying the middle ground in eighteenth-century free thought. It advocated religious and social reforms that undoubtedly struck contemporary observers as radical in nature, but it stopped short of the total overthrown of the established order championed by the more radical proponents of French thought. It sought the liberation of mind and spirit, but always within the boundaries… of ‘reason, righteous and immortal reason.’” (Pg. 44)
He explains, “the diverse approaches of individual American deists should not blind us to the common thread of argument that runs through and hence unifies their thought… all of them were in solid agreement with the fundamental tenets of natural religion… that humans are likewise imbued with a spark of the Divine Reason that permeates reality, and hence are capable of understanding that reality… and that the highest form of worship humanity can offer the Supreme Architect is rational inquiry and virtuous behavior… The demolition of Christian supernaturalism thus represented for them … the beginning of a new epoch---an epoch of reason---in which humankind, freed from the bondage of centuries, would at last come into its own.” (Pg. 45-46)
He notes, “even though [Benjamin] Franklin settled in his late twenties on the deistic position that he would hold for the rest of his life, he nonetheless clung to at least one theological holdover from his Calvinist background: a belief in the possibility of ‘special providences.’… Although affirming that reality is governed by natural laws, he also argued that the Deity is capable of overturning or even reversing them upon occasion.” (Pg. 73) Later, he adds, “In his youth he had drunk too deeply from the waters of Calvinism to throw over completely the uneasy suspicion that, when it came to the practice of virtue, humans needed a rigorous regimen of [discipline] and self-inquiry.” (Pg. 80)
He says of Ethan Allen, “Allen has rejected orthodox Christianity’s worldview on several grounds. He has argued that human reason is a necessary as well as sufficient means of understanding reality, that scriptural accounts of miracles are suspect because they blemish the concept of God, and that faith, properly understood, is a conclusion derived from either deductive or inductive logic… not a mysterious and intrinsically incomprehensible revelation.” (Pg. 102) He adds, “Ethan Allen … does not belong in the intellectual first rank of American deism… But for all that… the issues with which he dealt blazed a trail for the work of subsequent, more sophisticated champions of natural religion.” (Pg. 111)
Of Thomas Paine’s ‘Age of Reason,’ he comments, “No American deist before him had so stirred up public debate over religious issues… Paine’s ‘Age of Reason’ … was readily accessible on the street, and the clarity of its style as well as its outrageously iconoclastic denunciations of supernaturalism propelled it to center stage. In short, there may have been nothing new IN the book, but there was certainly something new ABOUT it. It spoke in such strident terms that it simply could not be ignored.” (Pg. 142)
He states, “Jefferson was not, then, a Christian in the dogmatic sense of the word. Orthodox… theology… violated those structural foundations that he deemed necessary conditions of all legitimate knowledge… Yet the curious fact remains that Jefferson insisted upon calling himself a ‘real Christian.’ This suggests that he believed there was some way to strip the Platonic accretions from Jesus’ original teachings to arrive at their pure, unsullied message. It also implies that Jefferson took that original message to be consistent with his own deistic notions of God.” (Pg. 155)
He continues, “Jefferson’s deism is best described as firm but moderate. He was not as ambivalent in his endorsement of Enlightenment rationalism as a Benjamin Franklin… Nor was Jefferson as stridently contemptuous of the Christian ethos as a Tom Paine of Elihu Palmer… he retained an honest admiration for the man Jesus and his original teachings… He can be viewed as a deistic Christian… while jettisoning, in good Enlightenment style, its supernaturalist excesses.” (Pg. 170)
He says of Elihu Palmer, “It is not too much to say that Palmer irrevocably influenced the character of nineteenth-century religious thought in America. After his deistic crusade, orthodox apologists realized that their defenses of Christianity could no longer credibly bypass textual criticism or ignore natural science… In short, Palmer’s doggedly militant challenge to the Christian worldview was too serious to ignore. It is because of this that he so richly deserves the title… ‘the chief of American deists.’” (Pg. 207-208)
He states of Philip Freneau, “He was a believer in the deistic worldview, but also admitted to a proto-romantic skepticism about the ability of reason to fathom reality. He admired the mechanistic natural philosophy of Lucretius and Newton, but attempted to wed it with an almost mystical vision of a divine emanationism that ‘loved’ the world into being.” (Pg. 241)
He suggests, “Why did a movement that exercised the American imagination for two generations end in such a dismal way? There are several explanations. To begin with, the leading voices in the movement died out one by one, and no new generation of deists arose to take their place… This depletion occurred largely because the ideal of rational religion had lost currency in the minds of many. It no longer spoke to those dissatisfied with conventional Christianity, no longer offered an alternative to supernaturalism that was deemed viable… new expressions of heterodoxy … more ably spoke to and for the new generation… deism’s demise … was hastened by the growth of what one historian calls the ‘democratization’ of religion in the early Republic… a Christian revivalism swept through the country between, roughly, 1780 and 1830.” (Pg. 246-247)
This is an excellent treatment of the subject, that will “must reading” for anyone seriously studying the religious views of the founding fathers.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Flip to back Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
