Jon Meacham, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (New York, NY: Random House, 2022), 676 pages with index.
Many debate the role Christianity plays in governing the United States. Jon Meacham’s latest history on Lincoln documents in some detail how Lincoln’s faith informed his presidency and in particular his understanding of the Civil War. Consider the following excerpts from And There Was Light :
- Lincoln’s friend I. W. Keys writes:
“In my intercourse with Mr. Lincoln I learned that he believed in a Creator of all things. …As to the Christian theory that Christ is God or equal to the Creator, he (Lincoln) said that it had better be taken for granted; for by the test of reason we might become infidels on that subject…; but that the system of Christianity was an ingenious one at least, and perhaps was calculated to do good’.“ (41)
- While President, Lincoln attended New York Avenue Presbyterian
Church. Of the Pastor Phineas Gurley, Lincoln is said to have remarked:
“I like Gurley. He don’t preach politics. I get enough of that through the week. When I go to church, I like to hear the gospel.” (238)
According to Meacham,
“Gurley would be a source of pastoral and philosophical insight for Lincoln as the president fought the most terrible of American wars. Lincoln’s experience with Gurley did not amount to a conversion. It was rather, more of an immersion in a Presbyterian theology in which God was an active participant in the affairs of the world.” (239)
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Lincoln understood the Civil War through biblical lenses. In his second inaugural address, he shared this perspective:
“Woe unto the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh”— continuing: “If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as a woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him?” (367)
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According to Meacham, the essence of President Lincoln’s vision was grounded in his understanding of Scripture:
“God had revealed Himself in the history of Israel, given commandments, made promises. The business of mankind was to live in history, obey those commandments, and one day avail itself of those promises.” (369-70)
Whether Lincoln personally understood and believed the good news of eternal life, you and I may never discern, but that the Bible informed his understanding of the Civil War and that it provided direction for many of his decisions as President is certain. Jon Meacham’s book is a well written and well documented account and worthy of the time to read.