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Suggested Lincoln Sources 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. 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. ___________. 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: Here’s a brief sketch of Phineas Densmore Gurley, the pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian: 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. 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;
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