Not long ago, the Bible was considered a foundational book for American society — a work that stood alongside the Declaration of Independence for its contributions to American politics. However, few American presidents have been shaped by their reading of the Bible as Abraham Lincoln was. From a skeptic and deist to a daily reader who made more than 200 references to Scripture in his speeches and other writings, Lincoln’s transformation as an inspirational leader coincided with his transformed relationship with the Holy Writ.
How did Lincoln — who grew up trying to escape the shackles of the fatalistic Calvinism of his father, Thomas, and who was remembered in his early adulthood as a skeptic and believer only in a vague deistic providence — end up reading the Bible daily and becoming the president who shattered the “wall of separation” conceived by Thomas Jefferson? That is the implicit question in Gordon Leidner’s new book, Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium.
Leidner’s book tracks all the biblical references and allusions in Lincoln’s writings and reveals how, as Lincoln grew older, our 16th president was no longer looking to the Bible for just literary inspiration but also (and more importantly) for a moral argument against slavery. Eventually, Lincoln would equally turn to Scripture to find meaning and solace as the United States suffered the mass death and destruction of the Civil War. The Bible became the pillar upon which Lincoln stood.
The Moral Argument Against Slavery
In the decades leading up
