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Paul Kengor
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God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life Hardcover – September 18, 2007

by Paul Kengor (Author)
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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For nearly three decades, political observers have sought to understand the complex relationship between Hillary Clinton's faith and her politics. Now, in this first spiritual biography of the former first lady, acclaimed historian Paul Kengor sets out to answer the elusive question: What does Hillary Clinton believe?

Based on exhaustive research, God and Hillary Clinton tells the surprising story of Hillary's spiritual evolution, detailing how her lifelong religious beliefs have intertwined with her personal history to make her the politician that she is today. Born into a strict Methodist family and raised on a spiritual diet of private prayer and self-reliance, Hillary, at a young age, used the Methodist Church's emphasis on community service to catalyze her involvement in the changing world.

From this unique foundation, Kengor looks at how the chaos of 1960s and 1970s America challenged Hillary's religious underpinnings, as she found herself drifting from her roots. Following her faith through her relationship with an aspiring politician named William Jefferson Clinton, Kengor examines the motivations that eventually led Hillary back to church as first lady of Arkansas and how her revitalized beliefs shaped her time there—from her Bible-study group to her husband's infidelities as governor.

Although Hillary endured many hardships in Little Rock, her days in the White House tested her faith like no other time. Sifting through the spiritual impact of Hillary's ill-fated experimentation with New Age mysticism and the disastrous Monica Lewinsky scandal, Kengor investigates how she relied on God for the power to save her marriage and survive the most difficult chapter of her political career.

While this spiritual chronology of Clinton's life is important, it does not tell the full story of her belief. Here Kengor fills in the gaps between the facts, analyzing the fraught relationship between her faith and her secular policies—most notably how she reconciles her pro-choice stance on abortion to her Christian beliefs—and scrutinizing how these policies have changed over the course of her political career. What emerges is an unexpected portrait of a political figure whose ideals have been shaped by both the power of her politics and the depth of her faith.

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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harper
  4. Publication date
    September 18, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.13 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0061136921
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0061136924
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
5 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JLW
4.0 out of 5 stars The Loved One.
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
I reference the (in)famous movie, as with HRC, it seems there is something to offend everyone...

Where to start, reviewing a 'spiritual biography' of one of the most divisive public figures in recent US history. Well, firstly, this book isn't all that good. It's really not. I've read it several times and each time I'm kind of confused as to exactly why it's not very good. But it's pretty much the only book on the subject of what makes HRC tick, so I'm kind of stuck with it.

For nuts and bolts, it's fine; as biography it's okay. But when it gets to actually doing what it says it does: illuminate HRC's inner faith, this book just doesn't quite cut it. Kengor himself admits, now, that the book was unsuccessful, at least financially; he says it's because one faction disregarded HRC's faith as irrelevant, and the other faction disregarded her faith as somehow not 'REAL' Christianity. This book does establish that the subject is in fact a devoted, even devout, Christian, just not of the Fundamentalist variety, so... Kengor reveals himself as leaning Fundamentalist, and his biography is seriously slanted, if not completely biased, in that direction.

I think the reason this book is not that great is not really because it's bad, exactly. I think it's incomplete. For all his efforts Kengor doesn't seem to have a firm grasp of women's roles in the Methodist Church; one gets the impression he actually doesn't know very much about women personally. His book describes doctrines and teachings, but can't seem to grasp that within churches and religious organizations some groups, factions, especially women's factions, and extra-especially women's factions dedicated to charity work and community outreach and, you know, actually doing stuff with other people, may, through sheer practicality, deviate substantially from the stated written doctrines of the greater organization.

I would encourage readers of this book, people really interested in finding out what makes Hillary Rodham Clinton what and how she is, search out some books and narratives about women's organizations and outreach in the Methodist Church history. I did, and was very surprised to find that research resulted in a much greater appreciation and respect for who and what HRC is. Two books I highly recommend for a fuller picture are:

'As Among The Methodists', Elizabeth Lee
'St. Mark's and the Social Gospel', Ellen Blue

Okay, that's all I got.
3 people found this helpful
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D. HILL
1.0 out of 5 stars Non harmony of words with deeds. Dan H
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2008
Kengor's books on God are very good, but this is the first person whose Christian view does not harmonize with her political actions. The most glaring is her support of partial birth abortion. She is prepared to kill my child at full term, murder and dismember him. Does she feel that 8,5 months after the Annuciation, Our Lady could have said "I have changed my mind"? Her view is clearly hostile to all biblical teaching and amounts to what Reagan calls "the second oldest religion=you will be God's." Is she God, or is God, God?
20 people found this helpful
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jmworacle
3.0 out of 5 stars She Ain't No Eleanore Roosevelt.....
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2015
This is a story about an overrated person who's accomplishments were due to her marriage to Bill Clinton. Unlike her husband who is able to charm most people she seems to rub people the wrong way. A former press person from Washington DC mentioned that in 1992 when the established Democratic candidates were intimidated by Bush '41 popularity polls she recognized the opportunity for her husband to run for the office of The President of the United States. Don't get me wrong she is a sharp cookie but if you notice, when MS Clinton is speaking her own words help to bury her. The background of her religious philosophy and her conversion from a "Goldwater Republican" to a champion of liberal women's right (unless they are accusing her husband of indiscretions) is interesting. One point made is how members of her own party who disagree with her "Pro Choice" philosophy are shunned.
6 people found this helpful
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James H.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Biography
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
If you want to see what really makes a person tick read about their Spiritual life.
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Keen Incite
4.0 out of 5 stars For What Does It Profit a Woman to Gain the Whole World...
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2008
Verified Purchase
Paul Kengor's "God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life" is a fascinating look at the life of the former First Lady from the perspective of her religious beliefs and how these have changed from her childhood, through college and law school, her marriage to Bill Clinton, her time in Arkansas, Bill's presidency, Bill's indiscretions, her senate career, and to the present.

Dr. Kengor is charitable in his assessment that Hillary has kept her Christian faith through all of these chapters in her life. One could easily surmise, however, that Hillary has long since traded her Christianity for a secular, Marxist, utopian "golden calf" to which she attaches a flimsy "Christian" label whenever it is politically expedient.

In many ways, Hillary has been a victim of her circumstances. She was victimized by her youth minister, Don Jones, who began her indoctrination into Marxist Christianity. She was victimized by her parents' inattentiveness by failing to monitor what Jones was teaching her, and who later allowed her to attend left-wing havens like Wellesley and Yale, which completed her indoctrination. She was victimized by the rise of the counter-culture during her period of intellectual development which kept her from realizing the value of Western civilization and the intellectual vapidity of its detractors. But despite this, she is still ultimately responsible for becoming the secular, power-hungry, political opportunist that she is today.

A spiritual biography is an interesting approach on the life of arguably the most prominent politician in the last two decades. Kengor's book paints a tragic life (though I'm sure Hillary herself is completely unaware what a tragedy it is.) It's not the tragedy of the hurts suffered on account of her husband and her critics. The real tragedy is the loss of her soul by the seduction of power.
66 people found this helpful
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