The Soul of Abraham Lincoln

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University of Illinois Press, 2005 - 407 pages
Modern secularists have been reluctant to recognize Abraham Lincoln's deep spirituality, in spite of the fact that he was often known as "Father Abraham" and has been described as one of the most deeply religious presidents the country has ever seen. Yet for all of his familiarity with the Bible, his invocation of Providence, and of the Almighty, he did not actively participate in a church or lend his name and authority to a denomination.

After more than fifty years of hagiographic and contradictory accounts of Abraham Lincoln's life, William Barton stepped boldly into the bedlam of claims and counterclaims about Lincoln's religion. Armed with an enormous collection of Lincoln materials and his own strict evidentiary rules, Barton worked to avoid partisan politicking over Lincoln's legacy and instead to simply "lay bare the facts."

To enable a better examination of the vexed questions surrounding Lincoln's faith and religious principles, Barton gathered Lincoln's most important writing and speeches about religion, and topically and chronologically assembled testimonies by his friends, family, and associates, about the most important and most debated issues. This volume, Barton's first and most important work on Lincoln, is introduced by Michael Nelson who provides a history of the literature on Lincoln's religion, the historical context of Barton's writing, and the details of the method that made Barton's approach to this American icon such a distinctive success.

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Contents

PREFACE
ix
INTRODUCTION
xv
CHAPTER
xvii
CHAPTER
19
THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLNS BOYHOOD
29
THE ENVIRONMENTS OF LINCOLNS YOUNG MANHOOD
51
THE ENVIRONMENT OF LINCOLNS LIFE IN SPRING
71
INGTON
86
CHITTENDEN AND CHINIQUY
188
THE BEECHER AND SICKLES INCIDENTS
198
FROM THE HOUSETOPS AND IN THE CLOSET
210
WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN A CHURCH?
244
THE CONSTRUCTIVE ARGUMENT
260
THE CREED OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
291
EXTRACT FROM NEWTON BATEMANS LECTURE
303
III
309

THE RULES OF EVIDENCE
101
THE BATEMAN INCIDENT
114
THE LAMON BIOGRAPHY
128
THE HERNDON LECTURES LETTERS AND BIOGRAPHY
140
XII
146
THE CHRISTIANS DEFENCE
156
VESTIGES OF CREATION
166
OTHER FORMATIVE BOOKS
172
TWO HERNDON LETTERS CONCERNING LINCOLNS
336
THE CHRISTIANS DEFENCE
358
CHAPTER II
370
LINCOLN AND THE CHURCHES
377
IX
385
358
405
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

William E. Barton was a minister at the First Congregational Church of Oak Park, Illinois, who began writing on Lincoln shortly before retiring from the pulpit. In the last ten years of his life, Barton produced eight substantial studies of the sixteenth president and was credited by Benjamin P. Thomas with ushering in the "modern, thoroughgoing,... realistic school" of Lincoln biography. Michael Nelson is a professor of political science at Rhodes College.

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