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72 4 American Religion, 1809–1865 Mark Noll The two specifically historical questions required for treating the subject of this chapter are, first, what was the nature of Abraham Lincoln’s own religion? And, second, how did Lincoln’s personal religion reflect (or stand out from) what was characteristic of American religion during his era more generally? Answering these already knotty questions is made more difficult because of another persistent question that has been anything but historical: how can Lincoln’s life, including his religion, be useful for advancing political or ideological purposes today? As William Miller once put it, “the topic of Lincoln’s religious views is caught in a great tug-of-war of interpretation because of the immense value he represents in the wars of culture.”1 Thankfully, careful research by a host of outstanding historians has made progress possible on the first two questions without becoming overly entangled in the third. On Lincoln’s own religion, historically considered, widely separated pioneering efforts by William Barton and David Hein set a promising course, defined by careful verification of Lincoln’s purported words and deeds joined with sensitive attention to the contexts within which the words were uttered and the deeds took place.2 Painstaking efforts to separate myths, which almost always serve present-day ideological purposes, from plausibly verified reality have recently helped greatly in the search for Lincoln’s faith.3 The result has been a flourishing of reliable writing on Lincoln’s religion that, while it has not resolved all conundrums, has made possible a much clearer picture than before.4 A review of the well-grounded picture of Lincoln’s own religion leads naturally into the more complex question of how Lincoln’s faith related to the general religious situation in the United American Religion, 1809–1865 73 States. In that broader perspective, Lincoln’s religion was still distinctive, but not because of any particular trait that differed greatly from what his peers believed and practiced, or because he was so exemplary in excelling the religious norms of his day. Rather, it was the way Lincoln combined ordinary beliefs and practices that made him unusual in his own day and an object of great religious interest (with controversy) in the years after he passed from the scene. The Religion of Abraham Lincoln Lincoln’s earliest religious influences were evangelical, Calvinist, and strongly sectarian. During his youth in Kentucky and Indiana, he heard a great deal of Calvinist Baptist preaching at the churches his parents attended—in fact, several contending subvarieties of Calvinist Baptist preaching.5 The dominant theme in the theology of these churches was God’s sovereign control over every human life and for every human eventuality (including eternal salvation or damnation). Almost as strong in these Baptist churches was an emphasis on congregational autonomy, which grew out of a lively Dissenting Protestant rejection of control by historical precedents, outside denominational influences, or any kind of authority except local approval. When Lincoln moved to New Salem, he experienced a different manifestation of democratized religion in the clamor of competing Protestant preachers . In a strange way, he seems to have both absorbed and been repelled by these early influences. In New Salem, Lincoln expressed heretical religious beliefs, as defined by most of the period’s Christian churches. His views then included, at least, a belief in the universal salvation of all people, which represented a serious heresy by Protestant (or Catholic) standards of the time. At most, he may have followed the religious writings of Tom Paine and other avatars of Enlightenment rationalism, to the point of speaking publicly about the unreliability of the Bible. Witnesses credibly reported some continued expression of such skeptical views during Lincoln’s early years in Springfield, where he removed in 1837. But at some relatively early point in his Springfield years, Lincoln began to keep his religious opinions to himself, though considerable dispute exists as to why he did so—whether from a desire not to offend more orthodox clients and voters or from an actual change of heart. In 1846, and for the only time in his life, Lincoln wrote about his faith directly when supporters of his opponent in a race for Congress, the Methodist circuit-rider Peter Cartwright, accused him of religious infidelity. The handbill that Lincoln produced in response contained these carefully 74 Mark Noll chosen but noncommittal words: “That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have...

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