Founding A Faith

The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Many on the left contend that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state. Neither of these claims is true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman. With refreshing objectivity, Waldman narrates the real story of how our nation’s Founders forged a new approach to religious liberty. Founding Faith vividly describes the religious development of five Founders. Benjamin Franklin melded the Puritan theology of his youth and the Enlightenment philosophy of his adulthood. John Adams’s pungent views on religion stoked his revolutionary fervor and shaped his political strategy. George Washington came to view religious tolerance as a military necessity. Thomas Jefferson pursued a dramatic quest to “rescue” Jesus, in part by editing the Bible. Finally, it was James Madison who crafted an integrated vision of how to prevent tyranny while encouraging religious vibrancy. The spiritual custody battle over the Founding Fathers and the role of religion in America continues today. Waldman at last sets the record straight, revealing the real history of religious freedom to be dramatic, unexpected, paradoxical, and inspiring.

A new exploration of the Founders of world religions that illustrates that they have been the impetus for the generation of great civilizations throughout history, and that humanity is now poised to establish a global civilization with unimaginable promise. Explores the lives of the Founders of the worlds major religionsincluding Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bah Faithand reveals that they are linked by sets of striking patterns. These patterns suggest that our worlds religions share universal teachings and have a common divine source.

What do you think when you hear the word "faith"? Do you think of deep spiritual connections, or irrational will-to-believe? What even is faith, how does it work, and what is it founded on? This book might help you answer some of these questions, as it explores the interplay between faith and beliefs, the foundations of religious beliefs, and how someone might go from having no faith to having a faith. If you are interested in faith and spirituality--and let's face it, you are interested enough to read the back cover of this book--but don't know what that might mean, then this book might be for you. I hope it will help you discover what faith means and how you might explore whether it is for you. If you have a faith but are struggling with doubts or uncertainties--if you are feeling untethered and in need of a foundation--then this book might be for you. I hope it will help you find the next chapter of your faith, a faith that is open to questions and flexible to challenges.

What do you think when you hear the word “faith”? Do you think of deep spiritual connections, or irrational will-to-believe? What even is faith, how does it work, and what is it founded on? This book might help you answer some of these questions, as it explores the interplay between faith and beliefs, the foundations of religious beliefs, and how someone might go from having no faith to having a faith. If you are interested in faith and spirituality—and let’s face it, you are interested enough to read the back cover of this book—but don’t know what that might mean, then this book might be for you. I hope it will help you discover what faith means and how you might explore whether it is for you. If you have a faith but are struggling with doubts or uncertainties—if you are feeling untethered and in need of a foundation—then this book might be for you. I hope it will help you find the next chapter of your faith, a faith that is open to questions and flexible to challenges.

Secular textbooks now fill our classrooms, while the Ten Commandments have been removed from their walls. Is this the vision held by those who worked to found this nation? What faith did our founding fathers truly believe and practice in their daily lives, and what does it really matter for us? Were they God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians or simply enlightened Deists, Transcendentalists, and Unitarians?

Explores the religious beliefs of America's founding fathers and their influence on American history and politics. Specifically addresses the philosophies of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams.

Longlisted for the National Book Award. Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began.