The Religious Rhetoric of Thomas Jefferson

Abstract

While Thomas Jefferson's passion for religious freedom is generally viewed as hostility toward religion, the author considers the issue far more complex. In fact, Jefferson recognized the power of religious motivation & tapped into this religious culture in three ways: by invoking God in prayers, by making God the origin of people's rights, & by arguing that Americans must act with God's approbation. He ranked religious freedom among the most important of the natural rights & saw religious pluralism resulting from complete freedom as a positive good. His name has become so attached to the separation church-state that the appreciation has been lost of how much he identified religious beliefs with the impetus toward revolution & the establishment of a new nation. Appendixes. D. Miller