Thought this might be of interest.

Bland Whitley
Dictionary of VA Biography 

-----Original Message-----
From: H-Net American Religious History discussion group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of BILHARTZ, TERRY D.
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 5:14 PM
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Subject: Review: Porterfield on Holmes, _The Faiths of the Founding
Fathers_

From: Kelly Baker, Book Review Editor, H-Amstdy

REVIEW:

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by [log in to unmask] (May 2007)

David L. Holmes. _The Faiths of the Founding Fathers_. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2006. x + 225 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $20.00
(cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-530092-5.

Reviewed for H-Amstdy by Amanda Porterfield, Department of Religion,
Florida State University

Recovering the Founders' Deism

Responding to recent claims about the deep commitment to Christianity
among America's Founding Fathers, David L. Holmes sets the record
straight in this comprehensive examination of the Founders' religious
beliefs and behaviors.
The men who conducted the American Revolution, ratified the U.S.
Constitution, and served as President during the nation's early years
espoused a variety of different beliefs, grouped by Holmes into three
main types--non-Christian Deism, Christian Deism, and Christian
orthodoxy. Holmes shows that only Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot, and John
Jay anticipated salvation through Christ, embraced the Trinity of the
Godhead, and engaged regularly in prayer and Bible devotion. Most of
America's early leaders were Deists of one form or the other whose
religious beliefs and practices do not match the claims about them
advanced by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other
evangelical myth makers.

One of the great strengths of this book is its careful exploration of
the religious practices of the first four presidents of the United
States. Holmes tells us which churches these men attended and how often,
so far as the records tell, and whether or not they took communion. With
evidence from letters and journals about their personal religious
feelings and acts of devotion, Holmes highlights the names for God these
men invoked, and the changes that occurred in their religious beliefs
and behaviors over the course of their lifetimes. Contrary to the
picture drawn by the first president's early mythographer Parson Weems,
Holmes reveals George Washington to have been a Deist who attended
Episcopal worship in times of crisis but avoided communion and numerous
opportunities for confirmation.

Holmes presents John Adams as an avid Unitarian. Thomas Jefferson
remained an Episcopalian throughout his life but rejected miracles,
sacraments, and priestly authority. James Madison attended church
infrequently during and after his presidency, avoided communion, and was
never confirmed. James Monroe was the least religious of all. Although
his wedding and funeral were conducted in Episcopal churches, there is
little evidence that he attended church with any frequency or had much
interest in religion.

The simplicity of Holmes's argument is a weakness as well as a strength.
Relying heavily on the term "Christian orthodoxy," he uses it as a foil
against which the Deism of most of the Founders can clearly be
discerned. Many historians of Christianity would not align their own
interpretive framework so firmly as Holmes does with that of the
theological victors at Nicea. While Holmes succeeds in making his point
about the Founders' Deism, his insistence on a normative definition of
Christianity deflects attention away from the considerable role that
protestant Christianity played in the historical development of Deism,
and away from the Founders' understanding of Christianity as a religion
of nature and history. By making "orthodoxy" so much a part of his
argument, Holmes plays into the theological warfare that evangelicals
love, even if he defeats them in a skirmish over the Founders' feeling
for the mystery of the Trinity. Evangelicals like LaHaye are more
interested in the Founders' sense of America's divine destiny anyway,
and Holmes does not dispute or even address the Founders' Christian
sense of American nationhood.

Leaving theological battle over the Founders aside, historians owe a
great debt to David Holmes for laying out the Founders' religious
beliefs and practices so clearly and meticulously, and for showing how
significant the influence of Deism was in America prior to the upsurge
in evangelicalism known as the Second Great Awakening.


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--
Kelly J. Baker
Book Review Editor, H-Amstdy
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Religion Florida State University
Instructor, Central New Mexico Community College p. 505.224.3636, ext.
0831 http://kellyjbaker.googlepages.com