On Two Wings: Humble Faith and Common Sense at the American Founding

by Michael Novak

Review by Dr. David Noebel

The Freethinkers of America are adamant in proclaiming that America's founding fathers were Deists and not Christian. I'm looking at the Colorado Springs Independent newspaper for February 28, 2002 and reading an article by William Edelen (an ordained Presbyterian and Congregational minister) in which he admits, "One of my favorite times of the year is the Presidents' month of February. Why? Because it gives me an annual opportunity to make a dent in the historical and religious ignorance of the political and Christian rightwingers. They spend almost full time in perverting American history, claiming that the bible and Christianity were at the foundation of this nation."

His claim is that the first six presidents of the United States were Deists and not Christians. He even quotes the Encyclopedia Britannica (1968, Vol. 2, p. 420) to that effect.

The historical truth, of course, is quite the opposite. Four of the six (Washington, Madison, Monroe and Q. Adams) were indeed Christian, and two (J. Adams and T. Jefferson) were Unitarian. None were Deists!

Says Novak in his work On Two Wings, "The fifty-six Signers [of the Declaration of Independence] were, mostly, Christians; they represented a mostly Christian people; and it was from Christian traditions that they learned these Hebrew names."

Novak spends over 200 pages disproving Edelen's major and minor premises.

He quotes James Madison to the effect that "belief in a God all Powerful, wise, and good, is so essential to the moral order of the World and to the happiness of man."

John Adams who says, "I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." No Deist would say such a thing!

John Adams again, "Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God." Again, no Deist would utter such words!

And while T. Jefferson is known for his building "a wall of separation between church and state" in his Danbury letter what is never mentioned is his concluding thought in that same letter, "I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessings of the common Father and Creator of man."

And it was this same Jefferson who, on his way to church at the U.S. capitol, said, "No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man and I as Chief Magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example."

And while I can't recall if Novak mentions the following portion of a letter sent from J. Adams to T. Jefferson I think it is important to keep in mind. Said J. Adams, "The general principles on which the [Founding] Fathers achieved independence were...the general principles of Christianity." (The Adams--Jefferson Letters, published by the University of North Carolina Press, 1987, p. 339, 340).

Novak quotes Washington where he says that, "every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country."

Novak also lists the religious affliliations of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence: 34 Anglicans, 13 Congregationalists, 6 Presbyterians, 1 Baptist, 1 Roman Catholic, and 1 Quaker. Not a Deist amongst them!

Novak, a Roman Catholic himself, also acknowledges, "the great merit of the Protestant Christian religion [is that] it emphasizes both religious and personal responsibility and self-mastery."

Page after page Novak builds the case that America's founding was indeed Christian, not Deist. And I'm sure he would agree with David Barton who maintains that of the approximately 250 founding fathers nearly all were Christian, and even the least religious (T. Paine, for example) were not Deists. In fact, Paine spent some time taking on the atheists in Paris, France.

Needless to say I agree with Gertrude Himmelfarb's endorsement of Novak's work, "I thought I appreciated the role of religion in the American founding, but I was unprepared for the massive documentation and powerful reasoning of Michael Novak's On Two Wings. The book is an original and indispensable contribution not only to the history of our country but to an understanding of its essential character."

Publisher: Encounter Books, 665 Third St., Suite 330, San Francisco, CA 94107-1951

Price: $23.95