A fairly comprehensive book on the founding fathers religious beliefs, religious beliefs in the US at time, & their family's religious beliefs. The author bases his fact/views on the actions, letters, & speech of the early presidents, not just on what church they were a member of.
Mr. Adams was probably the most religious & Christian president of the bunch, Thomas Jefferson was the least religious. While most of the founding fathers attended church at least every now & then, a lot of them were also influenced by Deism.

Very interesting background on the founding fathers in particular and deism in general.

It’s a good and helpful book for those who want to understand the faith of those commonly called “The Founding Fathers”. It applies fair and impartial historical standards. It accurately represents both the non-Christian and orthodox figures, and accurately applies the term “orthodox” (the term was never applied to John Adams - a Unitarian - or Dolley Madison - a Quaker, while Samuel Adams - a Congregationalist Puritan - and John Jay - a Huegenot/French Calvinist - were considered orthodox).

My only complaint with the book is the figures that are left out. Leaving out Paine is understandable; very few are unaware of his religious views. However, it would’ve been interesting for him to include figures like Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Aaron Burr, Marquis de Lafayette, etc.

I wish it had been more exhaustive. However, for what it does, it is a great book.

AN EXCELLENT HISTORICAL WORK ON SIX OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS’ RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Author David L. Holmes wrote the first chapter of this 2006 book, “none of the founding fathers knew anything of the churches that became so large in the United States in the twentieth century---the Pentecostals (or charismatics) and the nondenominational evangelicals. What the six founding fathers did know were the churches in which they had been raised---and in all cases those churches were the established churches of their colonies. But the founders were also very familiar with a radical religious outlook called Deism…” (Pg. 31)

He explains, “[The Anglican] church provided the religious background out of which Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe---as well as founding fathers as Patrick Henry, George Mason, and George Wythe---emerged… The Anglican faith of Virginia differed from the New England Puritanism out of which Adams and Franklin emerged. Both Adams and Franklin changed their religious views and embraced a form of Deism. So, too, did Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. But all of these men, except Franklin, continued to worship at least occasionally in the church of their ancestors---and their wives and daughters were usually devout supporters of it. The Virginia founding fathers married under their church’s auspices, consigned their children to its care, and were buried by its clergy. The impress of their religious background remained strong, even though their questioning of certain of their church’s fundamental doctrines led them to Deism.” (Pg. 36-37)

He points out, “if a reader cannot call Deism ‘atheistic,’ it is equally impossible to call the movement ‘Christian.’ Deists repeatedly called into question any teaching or belief of Christianity that they could not reconcile with human reason. For them reason was paramount in determining religious truth… On this basis many Deists dismissed the doctrines of the Trinity… the incarnation… the virgin birth… and the resurrection… Additionally, they found belief in biblical revelation---the concept that the Bible revealed God and God’s will---faulty when subjected to rational analysis.” (Pg. 46-47)

He summarizes, “after Madison returned to Virginia, his religious beliefs clearly moved in a Deistic direction… Deism influenced, in one way or another, most of the political leaders who designed the new American government… if census takers trained in Christian theology had set up broad categories in 1790 labeled ‘Atheism,’ ‘Deism and Unitarianism,’ ‘Orthodox Presbyterianism,’ ‘Orthodox Roman Catholicism,’ and ‘Other,’ and if they had interviewed Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, they would undoubtedly have placed every one of these six founding fathers under the category of ‘Deism and Unitarianism.’” (Pg. 50-51)

He notes, “Franklin remained skeptical about the claims advanced by Enlightenment writers about the innate goodness and ultimate perfectibility of humanity… Franklin was among these Deists who remained open to the possibility of divine intervention or special providence in human affairs… [Franklin would] seldom directly criticize, other religious faiths. Although Franklin privately questioned such Christian doctrinal teachings as the incarnation, the Trinity, and the resurrection, he remained cautious when discussing them publicly. Thus his religious views display not dogmatism but rather tentativeness and ambivalence.” (Pg. 54-56)

He says of George Washington, “In the fashion of the Deists… Washington seems to have remained indifferent to two significant rites of his church. Like many of the founding fathers who were raised Anglican, he was never confirmed… Even more significantly, Washington apparently avoided the sacrament of Holy Communion… Writers continue to debate whether Washington received Holy Communion before or during the Revolutionary War, but the convergence of evidence seems to indicate that he did not receive it after the war.” (Pg. 62)

Of John Adams, he comments, “Like other Deists… Adams substituted a simpler, less mysterious form of Christianity for the Christianity he had inherited. Reading and reflection caused him to discard such beliefs as the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, total depravity, and predestination… he asserted that humans should study nature and use reason to learn about God and his creation. Above all, Adams opposed religious oppression and narrow-mindedness…. All of this displays the blend of Unitarian Christianity and rational thought that was the religion of John Adams.” (Pg. 78)

He observes, “Since he could read French, Jefferson became one of the minority of American Deists who was strongly influenced not only by the Scots and English Enlightenment but also by its more radical French counterpart. Among America’s founding fathers, he became the principle ‘philosophe.’” (Pg. 80) He continues, “He regularly read the Bible. He revered Jesus as a reformer and moral exemplar. But he did not see Jesus… as a savoir. Nor did he believe that the miracles attributed to Jesus were more than pious exaggerations. As a result, Jefferson used scissors and razor to excise from his New Testament the corruptions that he believed its writers had placed upon the original teachings of Jesus. Because Jefferson’s God was a God of reason, not of irrationality, Jefferson removed from the gospels anything that appeared unreasonable.” (Pg. 83)

After recounting that Jefferson sometimes attended traditional churches, he notes, “That Jefferson attended and supported other churches does not make him a Baptist, Presbyterian, or evangelical Episcopalian, any more than his regular reading of the Bible makes him an orthodox Christian. Like many churchgoers, he was always able to tune out points of doctrine with which he disagreed. He remained a Deist in rejecting the rituals and sacraments of institutional religion as the proper form of worship. For Jefferson, true worship consisted of love and tolerance for human beings according to the ethical teachings of Jesus.” (Pg. 85) He concludes, “identification of Unitarianism with Jefferson seems accurate.” (Pg. 87)

Of James Madison, he says, “only snippets of Madison’s private religious views remain. In 1825, for example, he exchanged letters with the Reverend Frederick Bailey… He omits any references… to Jesus, to the Bible, to the Judeo-Christian tradition, or to the church. Thus Madison’s letter seems more the response of a Deist than that of an orthodox Christian.” (Pg. 96)

Of James Monroe, he comments, “When his speeches referred to the Deity, he used only the stock Deistic phrases… Monroe’s published letters… make passing references to personal matters. All discussion of religion, however, was absent.” (Pg. 103) He continues, “Religion was not a primary concern of Monroe. When he died, he left no deathbed statement… ‘When it comes to Monroe’s … thoughts on religion,’ one such writer declares, ‘less is known than that of any other President.’” (Pg. 105)

He also notes that Abigail Adams [famous for penning the words, ‘Remember the ladies’ to her husband] “occupies a special place in American history… Influenced by Deism, she left orthodox Christianity and became a Unitarian.” (Pg. 117)

He concludes in the Epilogue, “Only a few of the founding fathers who lived into the early decades of the nineteenth century would have known of the evangelical interpretation of Christianity that has nurtured the recent presidents of the United States… the brief presidency of Gerald Rudolph Ford seems to introduce the first glimmers of the partisan evangelical influence in the White House to which Americans have become accustomed.” (Pg. 165)

This is an excellent, engagingly-written, and very informative book, that will be “must reading” for anyone seriously studying the religious views of the founding fathers.

Dozens of books have been written arguing either that the American founders were born-again Bible-believing Christians or that they were skeptical secularists. Holmes' detailed research looks at each founder as an individual, examining their personal writings on religion as well as their religious behavior as recorded by their friends and family or by their own journals. What is revealed is that some founders were devout Christians (Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry) some were anti-religious rationalists (Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen) but most (Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, Madison, & Monroe) were a mixed-bag of orthodox and unorthodox ideas and practices. In other words, they were just like everyone else.

I have set out to study the Constitution and its period especially in mind of currently and past amendment discussions. Upon doing so, I found that this particular topic needed clarification. I read this book at the same time as "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation" by John Fea. By reading them both I hoped to get an idea of both sides of the topic. I got so much more. I had to put that particular study aside and read again "Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity" by Paul Barnett. This along with the history sections in my study Bible refreshed in my mind the age and depths of Christian sects and human abuses in each. Back to finishing the founder study, found so much more than just beliefs, but their lifestyles and influences. It all matters when one comes to a view on the matter. I enjoyed the experience

This is one of those rare histories that strays from the title in a proper way, covering just enough of various American Founders religious beliefs, and yet also broadly focusing on the sects and creeds of the Revolutionary era and Thirteen Colonies as a whole. While Huguenots settled in South Carolina, Quakers were highly influential in Pennsylvania, and Holmes covers these and other vast differences in faith across the country from early movements to those most prominent members—such as Charles Carroll of Maryland, the Catholic Declaration signer from a colony known for its predominantly Roman-Catholic leanings. Deism is given thorough attention, as well as Unitarianism, giving the how and why John Adams among others followed these movements and beliefs throughout their lives. Holmes even adds the leanings and religious followings of well-known "Founding Mothers,” with Dolley Madison, Jefferson's wife and daughters, and Martha Washington all featured and given their spotlight.

With fascinating insight into John Jay, Thomas Paine, James Monroe and countless others' creeds and beliefs, Holmes oddly ends the book with a lengthy 'Epilogue' that follows modern presidencies and their politics, specifically Ford, Carter, Reagan, the Bush family, and Clinton. This could have served as part of an Appendix, or the focus would have been more suitable looking at earlier figures in North America such as Cotton Mather, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson. Despite that, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers is a brief yet generous history that offers a wealth of information for someone interested in the religion of the U.S. Founders and that of their respective Colonies in the late-eighteenth century.

I had just joined a book club and this was the book they picked. They decided to do a history book because they just got done reading "A Reliable Wife" and "The Help." I didn't mind the book, but to me it read as if I had to read it for an assignment in college. I just wasn't into it and I felt as though I need to push through it that way I would be prepared for the meeting. This was my first book club, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Interestingly enough, we never met to discussed it. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm sure other people find it interesting.

Should be required reading, especially by Christian nationalists. The epilogue, dealing with modern day presidents, is unnecessary in my view.

This is a great little book that summarizes what we can actually know and claim about the religion of the founding generation. It's a brief survey, but it shows the wide diversity of belief and practice. The author shows that modern evangelicals are wrong to ascribe Orthodox Christian belief to many of the most important founders. He also demonstrates that modern secularists are not correct in their claims that the Founders were all a bunch of secular Deists who rejected all orthodoxy. Yet again, the truth is somewhere in between. Maybe someday we'll all take that to heart.

Well written, but I was hoping for some observations or analysis on the effect of the faiths of relevant founders on public policy. Still, a good read.

This book proves wrong the flaws in arguments about the founding fathers posed by both the far left and Christian Right in 21st century American society. Highly recommend!