Founding Faith

Starred review from January 28, 2008
Various American evangelicals have claimed the founding fathers as believing and practicing Protestants who intended America to be a Christian nation. Secularists, on the other hand, see in the same historical record evidence that the founders were often Deists at best. Both views are grossly oversimplified, argues Waldman, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com. In this engaging, well-researched study, Waldman focuses on the five founding fathers who had the most influence on religion's role in the state—Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Madison—and untangles their complex legacy. They were certainly diverse in religiosity, with Jefferson a self-diagnosed heretic, for instance, and Washington a churchgoing Anglican who was silent on points of doctrine and refrained from taking communion. All, however, were committed to the creation of religious freedom in the new nation. Waldman deserves kudos for systematically debunking popular myths: America was not primarily settled by people seeking religious freedom; the separation of church and state did not result from the activism of secularists, but, paradoxically, from the efforts of 18th-century evangelicals; and the American Revolution was as much a reaction against European theocracy as a struggle for economic or political freedom. Waldman produces a thoughtful and remarkably balanced account of religion in early America.

February 15, 2008
Beliefnet.com editor in chief Waldman describes the dramatic birth of religious freedom in the founding of our nation by letting five Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson highlight through original material their efforts in, disagreements and battles over, and approaches to dealing with the place of religion in daily life. Detailed, incisive, and ambitious in scope, this work, more a history of religious freedom than a biography of the founders, enables readers to grasp the beauty and perplexity of the founders' individual journeys and understand how their spiritual states of mind helped to redefine the relationship between religion and government. Waldman concludes that the founding faith was neither Christianity nor secularism but religious liberty. Those familiar with Daniel L. Dreisbach's "The Founders on God and Government" or Jon Meacham's "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation" will find a similar approach here. What makes this a priority addition to both large and small public and academic libraries is Waldman's moving beyond the often counterproductive thinking on this issue. An eight-page bibliography and the 45 pages of footnotes convey the care with which he makes his comments. Leroy Hommerding, Fort Myers Beach P.L. Dist., FL

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