Abraham Lincoln And American Political Religion

Lincoln's major public speeches are examined in this analysis of his attempt to create a political religion through his language of intense religious feeling.

At Gettysburg Lincoln resolved that "this nation, under God," would not perish, and in his Second Inaugural he called for "firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." How are we to understand these and other invocations of divine authority in the speeches and writings of America's most admired president? Exploring Lincoln's unique blending of religion and politics, Fornieri shows that Lincoln presented a comprehensive and compelling interpretation of political order founded upon American democratic and religious traditions. Proslavery theologians based their claims to legitimacy on Scripture, but Lincoln denounced this position as incompatible with true religion, reason, and republicanism. He envisioned instead a united nation that would honor both God and American political principles. Fornieri casts Lincoln's unique combination of politics and piety as "biblical republicanism"--a merging of Judeo-Christian beliefs and the founders' tradition of self-government. In a time of unprecedented crisis and upheaval, biblical republicanism provided Lincoln with a moral justification for difficult political choices. Fornieri demonstrates the sincerity of Lincoln's belief and reveals the remarkable consistency between his public and private religious views. Though Lincoln's faith deepened during the turbulent war years and after the death of his son, Willie, his articulation of this faith remained consistent throughout much of his life. Convinced that religion was a crucial aspect of life, Lincoln maintained that his own faith guided and shaped his political thought. In contrast to scholars who have emphasized the Lyceum Address as the key to understanding Lincoln's religion and politics, Fornieri brings forth the Peoria Address of 1854 as a more profound and mature reflection of Lincoln's political faith. At Peoria, Lincoln invoked the Declaration of Independence as the nation's moral covenant, characterizing the struggle over extending slavery as a clash between rival political faiths. He emphasized that the Union was worthy of preservation in light of the Declaration's principles of liberty and equality, and that these principles were best secured under the auspices of national Union committed to the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith sheds new light on how the Great Emancipator's personal trust in a living God shaped his vision for a new America.

Not long after Lincoln's assassination, the debate began: Was Lincoln a committed Christian or a confirmed skeptic? Scholar Philip Ostergard provides the answer with a thorough study of the president's references to God, the Bible, and Christian principles in his letters and speeches. The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln illustrates the depth of Lincoln's knowledge of Scripture; the Bible's influence on his character; and the development of his faith, particularly as he wrestled with the issue of slavery and led the nation through the tumultuous years of the Civil War. Readers will find this a fascinating and inspiring handbook of answers to the questions about one of our greatest presidents.

Lucas Morel examines what the public life of Abraham Lincoln teaches about the role of religion in a self-governing society. Lincoln's understanding of the requirements of republican government led him to accommodate and direct religious sentiment toward responsible self-government. As a successful republic requires a moral or self-controlled people, Lincoln believed, the moral and religious sensibilities of a society should be nurtured.

America has seen faith-based initiatives and “the audacity of hope” in twenty-first-century politics, but few participants in our political scene have invoked the other Christian virtue of charity as a guiding principle. Abraham Lincoln extolled the merit of “loving thy neighbor as thyself,” especially as a critique of the hypocrisy of slavery, but a discussion of Christian love is noticeably absent from today’s debates about religion and democracy. In this provocative book, Grant Havers argues that charity is a central tenet of what Lincoln once called America’s “political religion.” He explores the implications of making Christian love the highest moral standard for American democracy, showing how Lincoln’s legacy demands that a true democracy be charitable toward all—and that only a people who lived according to such ideals could succeed in building democracy as Lincoln understood it. Havers argues that it is simplistic to conflate Lincoln’s invocation of “with charity for all” with his abiding support for the ideal of human equality. The ethic of charity in his view also brought a uniquely Christian realism to the universalism of democracy. He also describes how, since World War I, intellectuals and political leaders have denied that there exists a necessary relation between democracy and Christian love, proposing that democracy is sufficiently ethical without reliance on a specific religious tradition. Today’s neoconservatives and liberals instead posit a universal yearning for democracy that requires no foundation in the ethic of charity. Havers shows that this democratic universalism, espoused by those who believe a “chosen people” should uphold the natural rights of humanity, is alien to the sober thought of both the founders and Lincoln. This carefully argued work defends Lincoln’s understanding of charity as essential to democracy while emphasizing the difficulty of fusing this ethic with the desire to spread democracy to people who do not share America’s Christian heritage. In considering the prospect of America’s leaders rediscovering a moral foreign policy based on charity rather than the costly idolization of democracy, Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love makes a timely contribution to the wider debate over both the meaning of religion in American politics and the mission of America in the world—and opens a new window on Lincoln’s lasting legacy.

In February 2009, America celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet’s politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents. Lincoln Revisited is a masterly guidePub to what’s new and what’s noteworthy in this unfolding story—a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates—including those about their own landmark works. Here, these well-known historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln’s legacy—from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln’s private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime. The eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln’s world—religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination. In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.

This biography of the sixteenth president explores Lincoln's life and political career along with insights into his philosophy, religious views, and moral character.