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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Various American evangelicals have claimed the founding fathers as believing and practicing Protestants who intended America to be a Christian nation. Secularists, on the other hand, see in the same historical record evidence that the founders were often Deists at best. Both views are grossly oversimplified, argues Waldman, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com. In this engaging, well-researched study, Waldman focuses on the five founding fathers who had the most influence on religion's role in the state—Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Madison—and untangles their complex legacy. They were certainly diverse in religiosity, with Jefferson a self-diagnosed heretic, for instance, and Washington a churchgoing Anglican who was silent on points of doctrine and refrained from taking communion. All, however, were committed to the creation of religious freedom in the new nation. Waldman deserves kudos for systematically debunking popular myths: America was not primarily settled by people seeking religious freedom; the separation of church and state did not result from the activism of secularists, but, paradoxically, from the efforts of 18th-century evangelicals; and the American Revolution was as much a reaction against European theocracy as a struggle for economic or political freedom. Waldman produces a thoughtful and remarkably balanced account of religion in early America. (Mar. 18)
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Review
“Steven Waldman, a veteran journalist and co-founder of Beliefnet.com, a religious web site, surveys the convictions and legacy of the founders clearly and fairly, with a light touch but a careful eye.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Waldman ends by encouraging us to be like the founders. We should understand their principles, learn from their experience, then have at it ourselves. 'We must pick up the argument that they began and do as they instructed – use our reason to determine our views.' A good place to start is this entertaining, provocative book.”
—New York Times Book Review

"Steven Waldman's enlightening new book, Founding Faith, is wise and engaging on many levels, but Waldman has done a particular service in detailing Madison's role in creating a culture of religious freedom that has served America so well for so long….Founding Faith is an excellent book about an important subject: the inescapable—but manageable—intersection of religious belief and public life. With a grasp of history and an understanding of the exigencies of the moment, Waldman finds a middle ground between those who think of the Founders as apostles in powdered wigs and those who assert, equally inaccurately, that the Founders believed religion had no place in politics."
–Newsweek

"Well-wrought, well-written and well-reasoned—a welcome infusion of calm good sense into a perennially controversial and relevant subject."
–Kirkus Reviews

"Founding Faith takes up two central questions about religion in early America. First, what did such Founding Fathers as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison usually believe? And second, how did it come about that the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that 'Congress shall m...

Review
“Steven Waldman, a veteran journalist and co-founder of Beliefnet.com, a religious web site, surveys the convictions and legacy of the founders clearly and fairly, with a light touch but a careful eye.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Waldman ends by encouraging us to be like the founders. We should understand their principles, learn from their experience, then have at it ourselves. 'We must pick up the argument that they began and do as they instructed – use our reason to determine our views.' A good place to start is this entertaining, provocative book.”
—New York Times Book Review

"Steven Waldman's enlightening new book, Founding Faith, is wise and engaging on many levels, but Waldman has done a particular service in detailing Madison's role in creating a culture of religious freedom that has served America so well for so long….Founding Faith is an excellent book about an important subject: the inescapable—but manageable—intersection of religious belief and public life. With a grasp of history and an understanding of the exigencies of the moment, Waldman finds a middle ground between those who think of the Founders as apostles in powdered wigs and those who assert, equally inaccurately, that the Founders believed religion had no place in politics."
–Newsweek

"Well-wrought, well-written and well-reasoned—a welcome infusion of calm good sense into a perennially controversial and relevant subject."
–Kirkus Reviews

"Founding Faith takes up two central questions about religion in early America. First, what did such Founding Fathers as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison usually believe? And second, how did it come about that the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that 'Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof'? The answers to these questions carry implications for our lives today, since at stake is the flash-point principle of the separation of church and state."
–Washington Post

“There is a fierce custody battle going on out there for ownership of the Founding Fathers. Founding Faith strikes me as a major contribution to that debate, a sensible and sophisticated argument that the Founders’ religious convictions defy our current categories.”
–Joseph Ellis, author of American Creation

“Steven Waldman does a great job describing the nuances of the Founders’ beliefs and the balances they struck, thus rescuing them from those on both sides who would oversimplify their ideas.”
–Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute and author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

“This is a history every American should know, and Waldman masterfully tells it.”
–Jim Wallis, author of The Great Awakening

“Steven Waldman recovers the founders’ true beliefs with an insightful and truly original argument. It will change the way you think about the separation of church and state.”
–George Stephanopoulos, chief Washington correspondent, ABC News, and anchor of This Week

“Steve Waldman makes the strong case that the culture wars have distorted how and why we have religious freedom in America. Americans can be inspired by this story–the extraordinary birth story of freedom of religion.”
–William J. Bennett, author of America: The Last Best Hope

“An unusually well-balanced book on an unusually controversial subject. Not every reader will agree with Waldman that, of the Founding Fathers, James Madison’s conclusions about religion and society were best. But all should be grateful for the way Waldman replaces myths with facts, clarifies the complexity in making the Founders speak to present-day problems, and allows the Founders who differed with Madison a full and sympathetic hearing. An exceptionally fair, well-researched, and insightful book.”
–Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame, author of America’s God


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

Tries to be moderate, fails


Steven Waldman writes a witty, well written book which in my judgement fails in its mission, which seems to be to 'split the difference' between the strict separationist Constitutionalists on the left, and the 'accomodationists' on the right. On almost all the important issues, Waldman comes down on the side of the strict separationists.

1. Founding Faith over-privileges some of the early founders, especially Jefferson and Madison. But he takes little account of the fact that both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were ultimately group efforts, voted and signed by dozens, and then ratified by thousands. Their 'original meaning and intent' should also be factored in.

2. Founding Faith continues the fallacy in point #1 by putting to much weight on hearsay statements from Madison and especially Jefferson's 1803 letter to the Baptists, which would be called in court as ex post facto and obiter dicta.

3. As Waldman points out, it was Fisher Ames who ultimately formulated and proposed the religion clauses of the First Amendment, and he was an accomodationist: shouldn't his intent be most important, if any?

4. Founding Faith calls the authors of the 14th amendment, which was interpreted to apply the First Amendment to the States, as "19th century Founding Fathers," which is a contradiction in terms.

5.Founding Faith just seems to assume that all the 20th century secularizing Supreme Court cases were adjudicated properly, but that is begging the question, that's exactly the point being debated.

6.On the next to the last page of the book, p. 204, Waldman comes down squarely on the side of the separationists, virtually telling the accomodationists to stop squalking, they don't have it so bad, and the Founding Fathers would be pleased how things have turned out.

Again, the author raises many interesting facts and points, does so in an engaging style, but does not forge the compromise that he sought.

What few realize about our freedom of religion
Our book club at church selected "Founding Faith" because of its timeliness today. The author goes into detail about the influential men, most notably George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, who contributed to the shaping of the First Amendment. The book first tells of what led up to the decision that this amendment was necessary, with stories about Massachusetts and Connecticut and their "one" religion and about Virginia and Rhode Island, who were more tolerant, as well as many other states' approaches. Waldman pointed out that the states were not yet "united."

The author outlines the personal religions of many of the Founding Fathers, so the reader can understand why these men reacted as they did traveling the rocky political road to the finished amendment. Amazing to the book group studying and discussing this selection was that political shenanigans did not start with the 20th or 21st century. We concluded that this is a valuable book for all to read.

Founding Faith
This is a fascinating and delightful historical discussion of what has become an extremely timely subject, the separation of church and state as viewed by the Founding Fathers. I believe anyone who is interested in this topic will be greatly enlightened by Waldman's excellent study. It is thoroughly documented, well organized and terrifically readable.