cover image "Ye Will Say I Am No Christian": The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values

"Ye Will Say I Am No Christian": The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values

Thomas Jefferson, . . Prometheus, $26 (258pp) ISBN 978-1-59102-356-2

America's founding fathers have long been revered or reviled for their praise or rejection of religion. Along with Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams probed most deeply into their own religious psyches and the cultural role of religion. Braden, a postal carrier and independent scholar, collects a portion of the pair's letters dealing with matters of morality and religion. The letters range over the usual questions for which these men have already become known: the human/divine nature of Jesus, the afterlife, moral philosophy, the place of religion in the state. The collection lacks a critical apparatus, however, and Braden provides no rationale for his choices or method of selection. Although he does provide footnotes for the letters, the notes offer nothing more than brief identifications of writers or others mentioned in the correspondence. Braden arranges the letters chronologically from 1787 to 1826 (when both men famously died on July 4), but the correspondence lacks any direction or structure. Moreover, the collection contains twice as many of Adams's letters to Jefferson as those Jefferson wrote to Adams, although Adams's epistles lack the sparkling erudition of his cohort's writings. (Nov.)