The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United St...
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Jan 24, 2009
Andrew
rated it: 
When it comes to the role of religion in politics, modern conservatives and liberals are talking past each other. Both groups get some aspects of the history of faith in politics right, and both distort certain aspects of this history to appear more advantageous to their argument.
Founding Faith shows that appealing to the founders as the last word on the role of faith in politics and civic life doesn't answer the questions. There was considerable disagreement among the founders about More...
Founding Faith shows that appealing to the founders as the last word on the role of faith in politics and civic life doesn't answer the questions. There was considerable disagreement among the founders about More...
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Dec 14, 2011
***Dave
rated it: 
(Original review: http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2009/02/01/...)
Overall: Faboo
Writing: Good
Info: Faboo
Re-Readability: Faboo
Audio: Good
Waldman studies the issues around religious freedom in the pre- and post-Revolutionary period, disposing of myths both Left and Right (the Founders to the dubious extent that they can be generalized in their religious beliefs, were neither a gang of radical secularists and Deists, nor were they fervent Christians of the sor More...
Overall: Faboo
Writing: Good
Info: Faboo
Re-Readability: Faboo
Audio: Good
Waldman studies the issues around religious freedom in the pre- and post-Revolutionary period, disposing of myths both Left and Right (the Founders to the dubious extent that they can be generalized in their religious beliefs, were neither a gang of radical secularists and Deists, nor were they fervent Christians of the sor More...
Aug 06, 2011
Paul
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Few things are more divisive than the role of religion in American society, and particularly so when it comes to what what part the Founding Fathers "intended" it to play during the nation's birth. "Founding Faith" was an extremely well-balanced and informative work on a topic that's willfully misrepresented by probably about 85% of those discussing it in our public discourse.
While liberals and conservatives both selectively cite quotations in order to claim the Jeffersons, More...
While liberals and conservatives both selectively cite quotations in order to claim the Jeffersons, More...
Apr 30, 2009
Jon
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Fascinating and readable account of the role played by religion in the founding of the United States and how both liberals and conservatives are partly wrong in cherry picking the founding fathers for support in their separation of church and state arguments. Makes a good case for the Revolutionary War as being a religious conflict (the participants certainly thought so)--as various religious factions fought to keep the Anglican church from becoming the established (tax supported) church through
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May 07, 2011
Lauren
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An intelligent and well-researched look at the thoughts, feelings and beliefs about religion of the Founding Fathers. When it comes down to it, there is no hard and fast "truth" about their intent. Not only did each of them have different positions, but, as Waldman shows, they often tempered them for political reasons. Better a partial win than a total loss:
“I believe there’s ample evidence that Madison wanted a strict separation of church and state. He wanted it local More...
“I believe there’s ample evidence that Madison wanted a strict separation of church and state. He wanted it local More...
Jul 28, 2011
Albert
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I urgently believe this book is a must-read for the present generation -- not just for evangelicals (who, sadly, might be too closed-minded to read it) but also for secular humanists. A refreshingly objective review of the importance of the separation of church and state in this country, addressed to a generation that has already forgotten, by attacking myths perpetrated by both sides of the debate. It is so interesting that evangelicals pushed so hard for the creation of the church-state separa
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Aug 02, 2011
Tchadensis
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When it comes to the Founding Fathers, religion, and how people relate to the aforementioned relationship there seems to be two camps. One camp seems to believe that the Founding Fathers was largely deists or atheists. The other camp seems to believe that the Founding Fathers were hard core god fearing christians, oddly enough the truth is far more complex. As the early United States was religious but not in a way that individuals would recognize now. As there violent conflicts between various C
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Jan 23, 2011
Clifford
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I'm very glad I read this book because it better equips me to argue in favor of strict separation of church and state. I confess that I had misunderstood the religion of the founders, but, as it turns out, so have conservatives. The history of religious conflict in the colonies and the advocacy of separation by, especially, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, is fascinating.
If I have one quibble it's that the author doesn't seem to have a firm grasp of the doctrine of incorporation, More...
If I have one quibble it's that the author doesn't seem to have a firm grasp of the doctrine of incorporation, More...
Nov 27, 2010
Wade
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Waldman claims that America’s founding faith was not Christianity or Secularism as many assert, but rather Religious Liberty.
I very much enjoyed his evenhanded approach in describing the Founding Fathers' goal of establishing religious freedom. The experiment continues today, and Waldman feels confident that the founders would be pleased with the journey it has taken: “[James] Madison had it right. Were he alive today, he would conclude, with awesome pride, that we are the most relig More...
I very much enjoyed his evenhanded approach in describing the Founding Fathers' goal of establishing religious freedom. The experiment continues today, and Waldman feels confident that the founders would be pleased with the journey it has taken: “[James] Madison had it right. Were he alive today, he would conclude, with awesome pride, that we are the most relig More...
Feb 11, 2010
Phillip
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The basic premise as stated from the introduction forward is, and I’ll the author’s language throughout this posting, that liberals work entirely too hard to prove that the Founders were “irreligious or secular” deists, while conservatives work entirely too hard to prove that the Founders were “very religious.” Both sides distort history and Waldman does an excellent job of presenting the Founders’ words and deeds as it pertained to the highly charged separation of church & state issues we see
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Jun 27, 2011
Matt
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I suppose one's feelings toward this book depends on one's vision on the founding fathers and religion. I am not sure who the actual audience is for this book, as it is written as if it is supposed to be read by those participating in the "culture wars" (side note: it has always seemed like if we on the outside keep referring to disagreements as wars we are not really helping keep down the animosity inherent in the arguments). But would those people really pick up and read a book tha
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May 31, 2011
Thad
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Wow! I love it when a historian tries to show that everything is not just black and white. This was a great book, and showed how the Founding Father's ideas were developed both out of a personal spirituality as well as a pragmatic view of the need for society to be governed by the social order that religion creates, while not allowing religion to compete with government, or vice versa. Well-researched, with arguments that were well thought out and expressed to suggest what Jefferson, Madison
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Apr 13, 2009
Terry
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After listening to Waldman's interview with Krista Tippett, I looked forward to reading this one.
Waldman does a superbly balanced job in describing the beliefs of the major founders of America: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison. These men's beliefs, like everyone's, evolved over time. You cannot simply apply convenient labels to them.
He concentrates on Madison, who had a major role to play in the shaping of the Bill of Rights, and particularly the 1st Ame More...
Waldman does a superbly balanced job in describing the beliefs of the major founders of America: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison. These men's beliefs, like everyone's, evolved over time. You cannot simply apply convenient labels to them.
He concentrates on Madison, who had a major role to play in the shaping of the Bill of Rights, and particularly the 1st Ame More...
Aug 07, 2011
Joe
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This is the best and most unbias book on the faiths of the Founding Fathers I have ever read. I highly recommend it to everyone. However with that said he did have one major error. On page 130 he said "The rights, we are told in the first three words, come from ‘We the people,’ not God the Almighty.” I fail to see how in any possible construing of words and interpretations how he possibly came up with this conclusion; nowhere in that section does it even mention rights let alone where they
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Nov 22, 2010
Ernie
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This book was recommended by a local religion columnist (Paul Prather)on the topic of whether the founding fathers intended the US to be a Christian nation. WWJD. WWFFD. Not surprisingly, the views of the Founding Fathers (identified as Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison) and the views of the other hundreds of state representatives who also decided these questions were diverse. Early in the book the author points out that many Americans fled Europe in order to have the freedom
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Nov 22, 2010
Jeff
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Normally can't get enough of this controversial topic anyway, but the several laudatory reviews, particularly Ellis's recommendation of this book over all others on the topic, prompted me to move it up in my queue. Particularly enjoyed the close examination of the theological and religious preferences (or non-) of Adams and Washington on one hand, Franklin something of an enigma, and Madison and Jefferson on the other end. I've been disabused of the notion of the Founders as deists, likewise a
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Dec 19, 2008
Clinton
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Interesting and lucid history of religious liberty in the US by the editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com. The book has two purposes: 1. Providing a layman's overview of the evolution of religious freedom, mostly focusing on the founding fathers, esp. Washington, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison and 2. debunking the myths used most frequently by the contemporary secularist left and Christian right. One key idea that gets lost with distance and revision is that 18th century evangelicals--espe
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May 09, 2008
Tripp
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Founding Faith is BeliefNet founder Steve Waldman's cry of Time Out in the culture wars. Using a wide of scholarly and original sources, Waldman stakes a middle ground between the hardcore secularists and the theocrats, aruguing that the Founders, on the whole, did want separation between church and state, but they were also not, on the whole, Deists, but were people of varying degrees of spirituality.
He also describes the role that faith played in colonial and revolutionary America, More...
He also describes the role that faith played in colonial and revolutionary America, More...
Mar 23, 2011
Austin
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Founding Faith is a fantastic read for anyone wanting to understand how the First Amendment, arguably the most important Amendment, came to be. While the author could have easily misused resources to support an argument of Pro Church-State relations vs. Anti Church-State relations, he didn't. He presented a fair assessment of the facts for each of the critical founders of the era, their thoughts, religious views and how it helped shaped their opinions on the First Amendment.
Jan 10, 2009
Jeff
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I learned that religious discrimination in the 13 colonies was much more rampant, pervasive, and even violent than I thought. I also learned that the First Amendment separating church and state was meant only to apply to the federal government, state governments could do whatever they wanted (indeed, 11 of the 13 states had religious tests for representatives as well as other laws that were very Christian in nature even when the first amendment was ratified). Even back then, however, it was co
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Aug 14, 2008
Rebecca
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Heard an interview with the author on NPR. He had a lot of interesting, little-known historical information to share, so the book should be pretty interesting too.
Every USian should be required to read this book. It presents a well-researched historical perspective on the founding fathers, their religious views and how those views shaped the constitution and early direction of the United States. It is about as un-biased as you can get. The author gives the historical inforamtion, More...
Every USian should be required to read this book. It presents a well-researched historical perspective on the founding fathers, their religious views and how those views shaped the constitution and early direction of the United States. It is about as un-biased as you can get. The author gives the historical inforamtion, More...
Apr 03, 2008
randy
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Having heard the author on NPR discussing this topic, I had anticipated its publication. The invocation of faith as a guiding principle in the establishment of American democracy has long been a point of departure for some in the on-going "culture wars" which have politically driven much discourse in recent years. Since I sometimes find myself with a foot in both camps, at least metaphorically, I looked forward to a coherent explanation of exactly what that faith looked like, and mea
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Nov 22, 2010
Russell
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This refreshingly nuanced book is the best I have read on the early religious history of the U.S. and the Church/State debate. Waldman takes on the so-called culture wars by showing that both sides of the debate frequently distort the truth in order the argue for their own agendas.
My only major criticism of the book is that Waldman probably underestimates the influence of Deism on many of the founding fathers. This is because he insists on a strict (orthodox?) definition of Deism tha More...
My only major criticism of the book is that Waldman probably underestimates the influence of Deism on many of the founding fathers. This is because he insists on a strict (orthodox?) definition of Deism tha More...
May 19, 2008
Sarita
rated it:
Boring.
He tries to draw attention by centering on a few famous founding father's backgrounds and words, but I think this discussion would have been much more enlightening and interesting if a broader lens had been used.
I would have liked to hear more of the instructive successes and failures of the individual colonies prior to the "founding." The author glosses over these conflicts in favor of a more biographical view of Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Madison. More...
He tries to draw attention by centering on a few famous founding father's backgrounds and words, but I think this discussion would have been much more enlightening and interesting if a broader lens had been used.
I would have liked to hear more of the instructive successes and failures of the individual colonies prior to the "founding." The author glosses over these conflicts in favor of a more biographical view of Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Madison. More...
Dec 07, 2010
Rod
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A very good balanced reporting of the faith, or lack thereof, of the founding fathers. Very realistic and down to earth. It was very balanced and addresses the extremes of both those who claim they were Bible toting fundamentalists and those who see them as church hating skeptics. He quotes people on both sides of the issue and then quotes the historic figure themselves.
Jan 27, 2009
Derek
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Waldman does a scrupulous job examining the theology, politics, and other philosophies of some of the most prominent and influential "Founding Fathers" as they relate to the issue of the relationship between church and state. He debunks many of the myths propagated by modern partisans. The analysis is careful and shrewd without being overly scholarly.
Oct 15, 2010
Robyn
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Very much enjoyed this book on audio while commuting. I'm not a historian but it seemed like a really well researched balanced discussion and I learned ALOT about the complexity of the discussions about the place of politics in religious and vice versa. Glad to have read this one!
May 06, 2010
Daniel
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This book should be required reading in all U.S. high schools. Everybody seems to think they know exactly what the Founders had in mind when it comes to relations between Church and State, but you may find out different if you read this book. Waldman examines the lives, philosophies, and religious beliefs of the Founders most responsible for the Constitution and the First Amendment. What I learned is that both today's Right and Left Wings get some of it correct, but also misunderstand a lot. Thi
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May 11, 2008
Brian
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A very comprehensive review of the importance and impact of faith during the founding of our nation. From the role religion played in the beginning colonies to the impact it had on the writing of our founding documents for which this country is built upon. The most interesting part of this book is the window it provides into the private worlds of our founding fathers and their deepest thoughts on faith and religion. Intriguing to say the least, this book tries to tackle the controversial issue o
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Jan 21, 2009
Cyndie
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This book details the early legislative struggle for religious freedom in the US. I found it informative and recommend it if you are interested in the issue of separation of church and state.
