Although he was a brilliant man, Thomas Jefferson was a flawed theologian. Nonetheless, he was not the lifelong skeptic that he is often made out to be. Nor did he believe in keeping Christian influence out of the government or the public square. The book I cowrote with Mark Beliles, …
It is a common myth that Thomas Jefferson was some sort of lifelong skeptic of the Christian faith. Certainly in the last decade or so of his life, he harbored serious doubts about some key Christian doctrines. But the man’s faith (or lack thereof) is much more nuanced than we …
It might surprise the average American today that Thomas Jefferson had many positive dealings with clergymen all his life. Most of these were believers in Jesus. There were a few Unitarians, but they were not the majority. Although Jefferson later in life expressed some doubts about some core Christian doctrines, …
Although outwardly an Episcopalian (even attending on a regular basis when Christ Church opened in Charlottesville in 1819 or 1820 until his death in 1826), Jefferson had privately embraced many key Unitarian views. The following observations are not found in our book, Doubting Thomas, but I bring them up to make the …