1 / 50

In God We Trust

In God We Trust. Religion and the Founding Fathers. CSU-East Bay. Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com. Session One: Colonial Experience. History versus Mythology Religion: Messy “Old World” view “New World” view. Session Two: Founding Philosophies. John. Thomas.

alexa
Download Presentation

In God We Trust

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. In God We Trust Religion and the Founding Fathers CSU-East Bay Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com

  2. Session One: Colonial Experience • History versus Mythology • Religion: Messy • “Old World” view • “New World” view

  3. Session Two: Founding Philosophies John Thomas

  4. Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) • Natural equality and rights of the individual • Artificial character of the political order • All legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people • Liberal interpretation of law: • People free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid • Revelation can never be in disagreement with human reason and experience

  5. Founders • 18th Century Philosophy: Enlightenment and Deism • Religion based on reason, observable phenomenon • Primarily religious values: Equality, Liberty, Unity, Civic Duty • Government: Make unity possible while protecting liberty and rights • Democratic Republic • Balance rights/powers/responsibilities of carious constituents (federal, states, people) • Powers (expressed, implied, reserved) • Branches of Government (Balance of Powers: Executive, Legislative, Judicial) • Bicameral Legislature (House to represent the people; Senate to represent the States) • Electoral College (President of the Union of States) • Religion • Equality/Liberty = Freedom of Religion • Religion provides moral foundation

  6. Letter from Benjamin Franklin to an AtheistDecember 13, 1757

  7. I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. President John F. Kennedy Dinner Honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western HemisphereApril 29, 1962 Thomas Jefferson

  8. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Born: April 13, 1743 • Shadwell, AlbermarleCounty, VA • 3rdof 10 children • Prosperous Virginia family • Peter Jefferson: surveyer/planter • 1757: inherited 5,000 acres (Monticello) and 20 – 40 slaves • Anglican/Episcopalian

  9. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Education • Childhood: tutors • 1752: School run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister. • Latin, Greek, and French • Began to appreciate the study of nature • 1758 to 1760: Rev. James Maury (French Huguenot) • History, science and the classics • 1760 – 1762: College of William and Mary

  10. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) College of William and Mary (Williamsburg) • Anglican Institution • Open only to Anglican students • Professors: Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion • Three Schools • Divinity School (ordination) • Philosophy School • Moral philosophy (logic, rhetoric, ethics) • Natural philosophy (physics, metaphysics, and mathematics) • “Languages”

  11. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Education • 1760 – 1762: College of William and Mary • Philosophy School (moral philosophy and natural philosophy) • Jefferson: mathematics, metaphysics and philosophy • Professor William Small • British Empiricists (knowledge comes primarily/only from sensory experience) • Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) • Thomas Hobbes (1588 –1679) • John Locke (1632 – 1704) • Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)

  12. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) 1762 – 1767: Read Law • George Wythe (1726 – 1806) • 1st law professor in the US • Prominent opponent of slavery • 1787: freed his own slaves • 1806: Attempted to end slavery in VA through “judicial interpretation” • Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) • All men should be considered “presumptively free.” *Freed Slaves in Virginia 1783 = 1% of VA’s population 1810 = 10% of VA’s population

  13. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Marriage • Jan. 1, 1772: Martha Wayles Skelton (1748-1782) • Martha (Patsy) (1772-1836) • Jane (1774-1775) • Unnamed son (1777) • MaryWayles (Polly) (1778-1804) • Lucy Elizabeth (1780-1781) • Lucy Elizabeth (1782-1785) • 1773: John Wayles (father-in-law) died • Martha inherited 135 slaves and 11,000 acres (Poplar Forest)

  14. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) • 1768 – 1773: Practiced law • 1769 – 1775: Virginia House of Burgesses • First Continental Congress (1774 – 1775) • 56 members appointed by the legislatures of 12 of the 13 • 1774: Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America • Instructions to VA delegates; response to Intolerable Acts • “Allodial” title not “feudal” title

  15. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) 1st Continental Congress (1774 – 1775) • Boycott British goods (December 1, 1774) • Call for 2nd Continental Congress (May 1775) • Invited Quebec • Intended to invite • Saint John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) • Nova Scotia • Georgia • East Florida and West Florida

  16. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) 2nd Continental Congress (1775 – 1781) • Same 12 colonies – Georgia joined in July • Essentially the same 56 delegates • Benjamin Franklin (PA) and John Hancock (MA) • Jefferson appointed two weeks later • Peyton Randolph was called back to VA

  17. Declaration of Independence Spirit of Republicanism • Enlightenment Ideals • Reason • Natural equality, rights of the individual, self-determination • All legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people

  18. Declaration of Independence Spirit of Republicanism • Enlightenment Ideals • Rule of law • Cannot be arbitrarily ignored by ruler/government • Protects liberty • Reason • Natural equality, rights of the individual, self-determination • All legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people

  19. Declaration of Independence Spirit of Republicanism • Enlightenment Ideals • Rule of law • Not direct democracy where “majority rules” • Tyranny of the majority • Reason • Natural equality, rights of the individual, self-determination • All legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people

  20. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) • 1776 – 1779: Virginia State Legislator • Reform – new democratic state • Drafted 126 bills • Inheritance laws • Streamlined judicial system • Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779) • Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge • Academic reforms at the College of William and Mary • First college to offer elective system of study

  21. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia

  22. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) 1779 – 1781: Governor of Virginia • Elected by House of Delegates • Two 1-year terms

  23. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) • 1785 – 1789 • Minister to France • Did not attend Constitutional Convention • Proposed Constitution • Flawed without Bill of Rights • 1789 – 1793 • 1st Secretary of State (George Washington) • 1793 – 1797 • “retired”

  24. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) 1797 – 1801 • 2ndVice-president • President John Adams • Quasi-War • 1798 – Alien and Sedition Acts 1801 – 1809 • 3rd President • Revolution of 1800

  25. Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) Died: July 4, 1826 • 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence • Same day as John Adams

  26. Jefferson’s Religion Jefferson Bible • 1803: The Philosophy of Jesus • 1819: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth • 1895: Discovered in Library of Congress • 1904: Published by Congress

  27. Jefferson’s Religion Jefferson Bible • D. James Kennedy (1930 – 2007) • Evangelical preacher and Christian broadcaster • Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church • Founder: • Explosion International, • Coral Ridge Ministries • Westminster Academy in Ft. Lauderdale • Knox Theological Seminary, • Center for Reclaiming America for Christ • Founding Board Member: Moral Majority

  28. Jefferson’s Religion Jefferson Bible • D. James Kennedy (1930 – 2007) • Jefferson = a “nominal” Christian • Jefferson Bible = Not a Bible • Abridgement of the Gospels created by Jefferson in 1804 for the benefit of the Indians. • “Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted From the New Testament for the Use of the Indians” • There is no evidence that it was an expression of his skepticism

  29. Jefferson’s Religion Jefferson Bible • Tim LeHaye • Evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker • Left Behind series • Faith of our Founding Fathers

  30. Jefferson’s Religion Jefferson Bible • Tim LeHaye • “Thomas Jefferson, the closet Unitarian, had nothing to do with the founding of our nation (he was in France being humanized by the French skeptics of the Enlightenment at the time) was no friend of faith.”

  31. Jefferson’s Religion Most Historians: • Enlightenment philosophers who shaped Jefferson’s approach to knowledge, reason and freedom of religion Jefferson’s Writings • Philosophical underpinings are evident • Anger • Concept of Heresy • Crime of expressing unauthorized religious thought

  32. Jefferson’s Religion • “I am a real Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” • Christ’s teachings are “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” • Urged “getting back to the plain and unsophisticated precepts of Christ.”

  33. Jefferson’s Religion • The History of the Corruption of Christianity • Joseph Preistley (1733 – 1804) • Raised a Calvinist • Founder of Unitarianism • Christianity: perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind and aggrandizing their oppressors in church and state

  34. Jefferson’s Religion • Christianity: • perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind and aggrandizing their oppressors in church and state • Ruined almost from the beginning • Gospel writers • St. Paul • Council of Nicea (325) • Trinity • Immaculate Conception • Divinity of Jesus

  35. Jefferson’s Religion • Christianity: • perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind and aggrandizing their oppressors in church and state • Protestant Reformation • Calvinism • “Insanities of Calvin” • “Straight jacket alone was their proper remedy” • Undermined morality

  36. Jefferson’s Religion • Christianity: • perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind and aggrandizing their oppressors in church and state • “Priests” (All clergy and theologians) • Pervasively corrupt • Organized religion opposed to freedom • Historical and Personal

  37. Jefferson’s Religion The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But

  38. Jefferson’s Religion • “I am a real Christian, that is to say a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” • Christ’s teachings are “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” • Urged “getting back to the plain and unsophisticated precepts of Christ.”

  39. Deism: Two Fundamental Tenets 1. Knowledge based in Reason • Rejection of biblical revelation • Spiritual journey led by reason, not faith • Religious truth • # 1 Religious Value: human equality/freedom Jefferson’s Religion

  40. Deism: Two Fundamental Tenets 2. God exists • For Jefferson: • Reason: “evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power to maintain the Universe in it’s course and order. • Not exactly the “Divine Watchmaker” Jefferson’s Religion

  41. Jefferson’s Religion • Against blind faith • Anti-Christian • Anti-religion • In favor of reason-based belief • Pro-Jesus • Pro-God

  42. Jefferson’s Religion Enlightenment Philosophers Personal Spiritual Journey

  43. Jefferson’s Religion If Jefferson’s primary religious value was freedom … … slavery?

  44. Jefferson Memorial Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free ; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.

  45. Jefferson and Slavery Aristotle • Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics • “From the hour of their birth, some men are marked out for subjection, others for rule.” • Slavery is the natural condition for some people Jefferson • Declaration of Independence • “All men are created equal…”

  46. Jefferson and Slavery Declaration of Independence • “All men are created equal…” • Slave trade • “execrable (detestable) commerce” • “assemblage of horrors” • “cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberties” • Committed the US to the abolition of slavery • Continental Congress struck the statement

More Related