Lincoln’s Civil Religion
For a book that sets Lincoln’s religious beliefs
within the context of religion and politics in the North
at large, see:
Strong, Douglas M. Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism
and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy. Syracuse,
NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999.
There are several recent book-length studies dealing
with Lincoln’s religious views:
Fornieri, Joseph R. Abraham Lincoln's Political
Faith. DeKalb,IL: Northern Illinois University
Press, 2003.
Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President.
Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1999. Guelzo has a very
perceptive chapter on the “doctrine of necessity.”
Morel, Lucas E. Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining
Religion's Role in American Self-Government. Lanham:
Lexington Books, 2000.
Temple, Wayne C. Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to
Prophet. Mahomet, IL: Mayhaven Publishing, 1995.
Thompson, Kenneth W., ed. Essays on Lincoln's Faith
and Politics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
1983.
Winger, Stewart Lance. Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic
Cultural Politics. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois
University Press, 2002. This book includes an excellent
chapter on “Poetry and Religious Orthodoxy in
the Second Inaugural.”
Wolf, William J. The Almost Chosen People: A Study
of the Religion of Abraham Lincoln. Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1959.
This book traces the development of Lincoln's ethical
and moral views in both religious and non-religious
terms:
Miller, William Lee. Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical
Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed
by Random House, 2002.
This essay may also be useful:
Thurow, Glen E. “Abraham Lincoln and American
Political Religion” in The Historian's Lincoln:
Pseudohistory, Psychohistory, and History. Urbana,
IL: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
These surveys of nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity
and revivals are worth consulting:
Balmer, Randall Herbert. Blessed Assurance: A History
of Evangelicalism in America. Boston: Beacon Press,
2000.
Carwardine, Richard. Evangelicals and Politics in
Antebellum America. New Haven: Yale University
Press, c1993 (in paperback, 1997).
___________. Transatlantic Revivalism: Popular
Evangelicalism in Britain and America, 1790-1865.
Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1978.
Here’s an online version of Lincoln’s 1846
handbill denying his religious skepticism:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/handbill.htm
This helpful piece on young Edward Lincoln appears
as part of the Abraham Lincoln Research Site, mounted
by Roger Norton, a former American history teacher:
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln67.html
For the history of Lincoln’s church in Washington,
see:
Edgington, Frank E. A History of the New York Avenue
Presbyterian Church: One Hundred Fifty-Seven Years,
1803 To 1961. Washington, DC: New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church, 1961.
And the church’s own website:
http://www.nyapc.org/
Here’s a brief sketch of Phineas Densmore Gurley,
the pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian:
http://www.nyapc.org/
The Lincoln Online site provides this text of the “Meditation
on the Divine Will”:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/meditat.htm
The text of Lincoln’s 1864 letter to Eliza Gurney
appears on the same website:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gurney.htm
These are only the most recent of the many studies
of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural:
White, Ronald C. Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The
Second Inaugural. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2002.
Tackach, James. Lincoln's Moral Vision: The Second
Inaugural Address. Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 2002.
For the full text of the Address, see:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm
You may want to see this brief sketch of Thurlow Weed:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h217.html
as well as the full text of Lincoln’s March 15,
1865 letter to Weed about the Second Inaugural:
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;
type=boolean;rgn=div1;q1=thurlow;op2=and;q2=weed;op3=and;q3
=1865;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln8;node=
lincoln8%3A764
You may be interested to see a photo of Tad and Willie
Lincoln during the White House Years considering the
profound effect Willie's death had on Lincoln's religious
views.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/search/display_results.php?id=GLC05111.02.0065