At 11:32 AM -0500 12/14/04, Christopher Green wrote:
Paul Brandon wrote:Jefferson was a very 'soft' Deist who believed that Jesus, while not
himself divine, was divinely selected (see Jefferson's Bible).This is not consistent with true 'wind-it-up-and-let-it-run' Deism.
My understanding is that the "softness" was a product mainly of Jefferson's *public* statements about religion (the man had a political repuatation to defend, after all, no les so than today's politicians). His private beliefs (though variably expressed) seem to have praised Christian ethics, but not to have included a robust form of divinity (except in a vague Enlightenment "glory of nature" form) much at all.
Since Jefferson was notably averse to talking about his private
religious beliefs I suspect that we'll never have a definitive
answer. Both Deists and Unitarians claim him; he appears to have
been in a gray area between the systems.
The argument for him being a Unitarian rests on his personal and
intellectual bonds with the Unitarian Joseph Priestly, his enjoyment
of Unitarian services (I believe the only religious services which he
claimed to have enjoyed!), his requests for Unitarian ministers to be
dispatched to Virginia, and such quotations as:
I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be an Unitarian by myself, although I know there are many around me who would become so, if once they could hear the questions fairly stated.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, January 8, 1825
I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Waterhouse, June 26, 1822
--
"No one in this world, so far as I
know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the
great masses of the plain people." -H. L.
Mencken
* PAUL K.
BRANDON
[EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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