A Christian and a Democrat: A Religious Biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Historians Woolverton (Colonial Anglicanism in North America) and Bratt (Dutch Calvinism in Modern America) present a fine religious biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, arguing that the New Deal program was largely the result of his Christian upbringing. Raised within the Episcopal Church, Roosevelt attended the Groton School for Boys in Groton, Mass., whose headmaster, Endicott Peabody, was known for enforcing a “Social Gospel” message of justice and service to others. As the authors show, such texts as 1 Corinthians 13 (“love is kind”) and the Sermon on the Mount were integral to Roosevelt’s faith—and thus to his sense of a God-appointed mission to lead a country in crisis. They argue that, while FDR was in no way a profound religious thinker, his public rhetoric—that the government exists to provide economic security to all citizens—reflected his strong beliefs about what the Gospel required. The authors resist connecting any single act of FDR’s to religious impulse, instead arguing that his conscience had always been informed by the “love thy neighbor” message of Christianity. This solid study of FDR’s religious roots will appeal to any reader interested in the life of America’s longest-serving president. (Aug.)