Many statements have been made about the founding fathers of this nation in recent times. Some have attempted to make it sound as if they were all Deists who believed as strongly as the ACLU in the separation of church and state. Not only were very few actually Deists, but most of them were strongly influenced by the Bible. The purpose of John Eidsmoe’s book, Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers, is to provide an historically accurate account of their views.
He begins with chapters on Calvinism and Puritanism to show the religious climate of the time and to provide the philosophy which influenced their thinking. Chapter three deals with “Deism, Freemasonry, and Science.” The religious profession of each of the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention is listed (41-43).
Three charts in the next chapter are also quite interesting; they include the thinkers most cited by the founding fathers (by decade) (52-53). The work cited most often, not surprisingly, was the Bible (52).
The founding fathers surveyed in the book include John Witherspoon, James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Roger Sherman, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
The author has been very diligent in researching through historical documents and private letters to provide the reader insights into their beliefs. The many quotations serve as a valuable reference in refuting the claims of those trying to portray these men as atheists.
Franklin may have held some Deistic views at one time, but it was he, during a deadlock in the 1787 Constitutional Convention, who said:
I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
Franklin then went on to move that “. . . prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning. . .” (208).
Jefferson accepted his own version of Christianity after the 1790’s (240). His statement about “a wall of separation between Church and State” is given special treatment (242-45).
The history of the Constitution, as well as its ratification, are outlined. The entire document with all its amendments and The Articles of Confederation are also included. The book is factual and educational.