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PARTISAN REVIEW
Although Lincoln believed that the Bible contained certain moral truths
(as did Shakespeare's plays), he doubted many of the doctrines of Chris–
tianity. Found among his papers after his death was a fragment of an
essay on "Meditation on Divine Will," a subject which Lincoln
acknowledged had surpassed his comprehension.
Listening
to
politicians, the public must have been unaware that
America made a decisive break with religion when it turned to the eigh–
teenth-century Enlightenment, and even many contemporary scholars
and intellectuals seem to accept the politicians' view on religion, as indi–
cated in a recent symposium on the subject in the Jewish journal
Tikkun
(November-December
2000)
where Lieberman is uncritically cited as
supposedly reiterating John Adams's statement that the Constitution
was meant "only for a moral and religious people." Yet the eighteenth
century had a different perspective. Thinkers like Ben Franklin were
thrilled to see nature take the place of the supernatural and science
replace religion. Consider the four foundational documents of the
American Republic: Tom Paine's "Common Sense," Thomas Jefferson's
"The Declaration of Independence," the Constitution as theorized by
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in
The Federalist,
and John
Adams's "Defense" of the Constitution.
The author of the first document also wrote "The Age of Reason" to
explain why America should leave religion to the Middle Ages. The
"Declaration" derived from John Locke's empirical philosophy, which
turned away from scripture as a source of authority.
The Federalist
drew
upon David Hume's modern skepticism, wherein God disappears from
philosophy for lack of proof. And Adams's voluminous work was influ–
enced by Adam Smith, the economic philosopher who gave us
The
Wealth of Nations,
which argued that we no longer need to look to God
or worry about religious salvation because social approbation is more
important.
Religion,
to
be sure, was not completely missing at the Republic's
founding. Jefferson believed Jesus's teachings were worthwhile and saw
the "Creator" as well as "Nature" as the source of unalienable rights;
and while he agreed with Locke that human reason links humanity to
God, he also believed with Locke that knowledge of God's nature and
of His "purposes" remained beyond humanity's reach.
The shadow of sin falls all over
The Federalist.
The advice that its
authors should have consulted Jesus before heading to the Constitu–
tional Convention in Philadelphia in
1787
would have had them roar–
ing with laughter. Even though Hamilton later toyed with the idea of a
"Christian commonwealth," at the time of the Constitution he and the
