Product Description

Attempts by evangelical Christians to claim Washington and other founders as their own, and scholars' ongoing attempts to contradict these claims, are nothing new. Particularly after Washington was no longer around to refute them, legends of his Baptist baptism or secret conversion to Catholicism began to proliferate. Mount Vernon researcher Mary Thompson endeavors to get beyond the current preoccupation with whether Washington and other founders were or were not evangelical Christians to ask what place religion had in their lives. Thompson follows Washington and his family over several generations, situating her inquiry in the context of new work on the place of religion in colonial and postrevolutionary Virginia and the Chesapeake.

Thompson considers Washington's active participation as a vestryman and church warden as well as a generous donor to his parish prior to the Revolution, and how his attendance declined after the war. He would attend special ceremonies, and stood as godparent to the children of family and friends, but he stopped taking communion and resigned his church office. Something had changed, but was it Washington, the church, or both? Thompson concludes that he was a devout Anglican, of a Latitudinarian bent, rather than either an evangelical Christian or a Deist. The meaning of this description, Thompson allows, when applied to eighteenth-century Virginia gentlemen, is far from self-evident, leaving ample room for speculation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #498775 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 264 pages

Review
"This is likely the best book that will ever be written on Washington and religion, and it may be as close as we will come to an understanding of Washington's Christianity." -Frank E. Grizzard, Director of the Lee Family Digital Archive at Washington and Lee University and author of George! A Guide to All Things Washington

About the Author
Mary V. Thompson is Research Historian in the Collections Department of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.

Customer Reviews

Honest discourse on George Washington's faith
For all that we know about George Washington, his faith has remained a mystery. The main reason for this is Washington himself, whose natural reticence is no more apparent than in the matters of his soul. Sifting through his papers for evidence of his beliefs is a daunting task, but Ms. Thompson does an admirable and evenhanded job and sheds new light on an old subject. She provides the proper context for Washington's beliefs by exploring the religious environment in which he lived - 18th century Virginian Anglicanism. To those who claim Washington was not a Christian she counters than they provide a narrow definition for Christianity, namely a modern-day evangelical Christian. She posits that Washington was a Christian who saw his actions as a statement of faith, rather than mere words. He supported the Church, was a regular churchgoer, was familiar with the Bible since childhood, bought dozens of Christian sermons, took the oath as a Godfather eight times, and was a constant donor to charities. Ms. Thompson is in a unique position to address this issue with her extensive familiarity with Washington's papers as the Research Historian at the Collections Department of the Mount Vernon. She brings to light many of Washington's early writings which demonstrates his familiarity with the Bible and contains references to Christ. Does she claim to know the exact state of Washington's soul? No, she humbly answers... but the preponderance of evidence points to a self-effacing Christianity.

"essential for understanding Washington's character"
If Washington's religious beliefs are of interest, you are unlikely to find a better treatment of the subject than this.

No one comes to the topic of religion without bias but Mary Thompson seems to be as open-minded and straightforward as is possible. Indeed she has a C.S. Lewis like flair for discussing religious points in such a nonpartisan way that few could quibble.

Most importantly, she has that agreeable writing style that the best non-fiction writers have of footnoting and documenting without letting the scholarship interfere with an interesting narrative.

In summation, a pleasure to read and essential to anyone wanting to understand Washington's character.