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Lincoln biography
In observance of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, may I recommend Allen C. Guelzo’s very interesting book, Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President. This is an intellectual biography of Lincoln which brings out dimensions of his life and times that have never been adequately treated before, especially his Whig beliefs that were the key to his entire politics, including the policies he pursued as president, years after the Whig Party had gone out of existence. Whiggism was far more than a party or ideology, it was an ethos, a way of life, which its followers saw as in radical opposition to the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian ethos. Also, traditionalist conservatives need not worry about the “redeemer president” in the subtitle. One of the book’s main themes is that Lincoln, as a “Deistic Calvinist,” did not believe in redemption, though he did believe in divine judgment rendered through history. Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 12, 2004 04:00 PM | Send Comments
“Also, traditionalist conservatives need not worry about the “redeemer president” in the subtitle. “ I am not clear on what would worry traditionalists about this - that we are afraid that Lincoln is trying to become Christ, or that Guelzo thinks that Lincoln is Jesus Christ? “One of the book’s main themes is that Lincoln, as a “Deistic Calvinist,” did not believe in redemption, though he did believe in divine judgment rendered through history.” That Lincoln does not believe in redemption - in effect, that he does believe in Jesus, if I understand you correctly - is this supposed to make traditionalists feel better about him as portrayed in the book? I was trying to avoid misunderstandings and I guess I created some instead. I thought that traditionalists might be put off by a book on Lincoln called Redeemer President because (1) they don’t have that high an opinion of him, and (2) it sounds like a celebration of the liberal and neoconservative view of Lincoln as the man who remade America and turned us into a redeemer nation based on an idea. I mentioned that the book shows that Lincoln was not a Christian and did not believe in redemption because this would show that the book is not Lincoln hagiography. Most Lincoln admirers want to see him as a Christian. This is something that started during his own life and especially immediately after his death, which took place on Good Friday and so on. The first biographies fudged his lack of belief and falsely took his frequent quotations of Scripture as indicating belief. The truth that Guelzo discovers is far more interesting and surprising than either infidelity or orthodox belief. Lincoln started out as an Enlightenment skeptic, and moved more and more toward belief. But it wasn’t Christian belief, but a highly idiosyncratic belief in Necessity or God’s Purpose as revealed through history. It was a kind of neo-Calvinism because Lincoln did not believe in free will. He thought people were completely controlled by forces without and within, and all they could do was try to recognize God’s purposes and accept them. The Second Inaugural was the culmination of a world view he had been developing for a long time. Posted by: Lawrence Auster on February 12, 2004 6:30 PM |