The Founders on Religion - a book review

The Founders on Religion edited by James H. Hutson is, like most books of quotations, not exactly a book that is fascinating to read straight through from cover to cover. It is more a book that you keep on the shelf to be used as a reference when preparing correspondence, a talk, or a blog entry on a particular topic. To that end, Hutson has simplified matters by categorizing the quotations by topic instead of by Founding Father. The drawback of such a sort is that you do not see the philosophy of any of the Founding Fathers. You could, on the basis of many of Thomas Jefferson's quotes for instance, consider him a devoutly religious man. Other quotations wherein he details his "picking and chosing" of bible selections, literally cutting some verses out of his bible while keeping others, indicates that his religion was one-of-a-kind. You also cannot see the changes in a particular person's viewpoint through their lifetime or to particular politically charged situations. We certainly see the politicians of our day emphasize different beliefs to fit the situation and there is no reason to think it was otherwise 200 years ago.

One of the things I found exceedingly interesting was how many of the ideas and beliefs that I had assumed were new and fundamental to the newly organized Mormon church in 1830 were, in fact, very much the topics of the day in the early 1800's. These were such things as the end of the world, the restoration of Israel, the return of the Ten Lost Tribes, and the origin of the American Indian. Growing up, Joseph Smith could have even heard discussions of these topics from John Adams himself, an idea I had never considered.

This book, although only mildly slanted in favor of Christianity and godly belief, is not comprehensive. It would be a useful addition to a reference bookshelf but certainly wouldn't be my first choice for Founding Fathers' quotes.