Review of "1776 Faith"

Doing a "book report" is always interesting, but when you have to review a book written by someone you know . . . That is a whole different thing. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading 1776 Faith. It can be purchased here.

The book is authored by Phil Webster; I received a copy of the book from Phil before a mini-interview I conducted with him at our local Panera Bread. I have known Phil for over a year now, via our mutual religious affiliation, so being objective here will not be easy, but I am going to try.

As the title suggests, the book is about the religious sensibilities of the men that founded America. The book takes the position, in the first few pages, that the Founding Fathers possessed a Christian world view. The book then proceeds to demonstrate that assertion. The attempt is successful as it is hard to argue with loads of print. Through mostly personal correspondence, but also through official declarations and state constitutions, the Christian orientation of the Founding Fathers comes into view. These were men of faith, and these men consciously knew their faith had great bearing on their politics.

At 227 pages, this book is an easy read. The bulk of it consists of a section given to a particular Founding Father with text written by the Founder himself that, to varying degrees, demonstrates his theistic world view. At times, Phil Webster provides a slight bit of context or synthesis of the material he is dealing with. This is the greatest strength and weakness of the book. This style makes the book easy to put down and pick back up. It also lets the founders speak in their own words; I am tired of authors who's commentary on a text dwarfs the text that he is commenting on. Phil Webster provides only a minimal amount of contextualization which, though possessing its drawbacks, is a good thing. As such, this book makes for a decent reference guide. Many letters and quotes that are in this book are not the ones popularly associated with the Founding Fathers, and are not easy to find.

Phil Webster also spends ink dealing with the less religious Founding Fathers, like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. I have addressed this issue here. Paine, and to a lesser extent Jefferson, could be considered the voices of dissent amongst the Founding Fathers. However, this dissent is just that - "dissent". It is in contrast to the solidly Christian world view of the hundreds of men referred to now as "The Founding Fathers".

The book fizzles a bit at the end. The lyrics from hymns of the era are given. I did not see this as necessary and it surely does not make Webster's case as strong as the personal correspondences did. On the flip side, the book has one of the best covers I have seen in a long time. Get 1776 Faith, read it, and you too will see America's Founding Father's as men of faith.