This is a transcript of our annual Founders' Day Lecture presented by Peter McNamara of Utah State University

Cake showing separation between State and Church
But unfortunately no Wall -- these are perilous times
(click picture to display larger image)

Thomas Jefferson is famous for his idea that there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state. But what were his personal views on religion? Although he never spoke in public of his religious views, they were a burning political issue in the elections of 1796 and 1800 and into Jefferson's Presidency. This was particularly true in the bitter election campaign of 1800 when his Federalist opponents had little to run aside from attacking Jefferson's character. There were two or three points of attack. Jefferson had expressed some views with religious implications in his one and only book, the Notes on Virginia, published in the mid1780s. He had questioned in a scientific manner the idea that there was once a universal deluge that covered the earth. He also raised the possibility that Africans were a separate species of man from Europeans-the so-called "polygenesis" thesis. Most famously, he advocated religious freedom on the grounds that:

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Jefferson's apparent questioning of the story of Adam and Eve, the flood in the time of Noah, and his extension of toleration to atheists were all the subject of extensive commentary by both Federalist politicians and orthodox clergyman, especially in New England.

Perhaps more important than his Notes on Virginia was Jefferson's early and continued support of the French Revolution which many Americans came to see as an attack on religion, in general, and Christianity, in particular. Closely related to Jefferson's support for the French Revolution was his association with Thomas Paine--author of the Rights of Man and of The Age of Reason. It is common to decry the partisanship and vitriol of American politics today but things today are positively polite by the standards of Jefferson's day. Federalists charged that if Jefferson were elected Jacobin tyranny would ensue, blood would flow, religion and morals would be destroyed, Bibles would be burned, wives and daughters would become prostitutes.

Throughout this onslaught Jefferson remained silent. His supporters did respond but Jefferson did not. Why did he remain silent? Why did he not address the issue head-on? There are, I would suggest, two answers. The first is that Jefferson's views on religion were unorthodox and not easily explained. He was, as he always maintained privately, no "infidel" or "atheist" but, as we will see, his views were highly unorthodox. There was a second, more principled, reason for Jefferson's refusal to comment. He thought that to respond would be to cede an essential right--that of freedom of conscience. As he wrote to Benjamin Rush in 1803,

I am averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public; because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances become his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith which the laws have left between God and himself.

Thus, to respond to such charges would be to make public opinion a religious inquisitor, something which the public had no right to whatsoever. In Jefferson's version of social contract theory, the right to freedom of conscience is a natural right that one retains completely in civil society. No part of it is given to government or society.

So, what were Jefferson's religious views? This is a question not so easily answered. His views were complex, they seem to have evolved over time, and he seems to have left some parts of them open to even further evolution. Jefferson did express his private views in letters to certain close friends. These letters seem to have been spurred by the political attacks Jefferson was subject to, but they also seem to have been part of a genuine intellectual inquiry. Jefferson was particularly stimulated by scientist philosopher Joseph Priestley's comparison of the moral teachings of ancient philosophy with the moral teachings of the revealed religions. The first letter I would like to discuss is Jefferson's letter to his nephew Peter Carr from 1787. After the death of Carr's father, Jefferson took charge of young Carr's education. The letter to Carr is interesting and important because it makes clear the general approach Jefferson took to religion. (Carr would have been about 17 at the time.) Jefferson tells Carr "to fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact and every opinion." He continues: "Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." Jefferson tells Carr that he must interrogate the Bible according to the standards of reason. He concludes with some words of comfort. "Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences." Jefferson is adamant on only one point.

...you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is your only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but for the uprightness of the decision.

Jefferson was surely relating to this favored nephew the approach he himself had taken and indeed was taking to religion.

Where did Jefferson's reason lead him? It led him to embrace two doctrines, summed up in two affirmations: the first, "I am a Christian" and, the second, "I ... am an Epicurean." Jefferson said the first, "I am a Christian," to Benjamin Rush a doctor, an educator, a political ally, and a friend. Rush and Jefferson, however, did not see eye to eye on the matter of religion. Rush was a believer in revealed religion and also a believer in the idea that Christianity, understood as a revealed doctrine, was a crucial support of republican government. He tried to get Jefferson to demonstrate to the public more clearly his support for Christianity. In the end, Jefferson left Rush disappointed but the request elicited a memorable letter from Jefferson explaining his idea of Christianity.

Jefferson described Jesus a moral teacher who took the religion of the Jews and perfected it. The great insight of the Jews, according to Jefferson, was their monotheism. However, the moral ideas of the Jews were, again according to Jefferson, "often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason and morality." It was these that Jesus reformed.

His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and friends, were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so than the Jews; and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and aids. A development of this head will evince the superiority of the system of Jesus above all others.

Unfortunately Jesus (like Socrates) wrote nothing of his own and as a result to understand his ideas we have read his chroniclers who were according to Jefferson "unlettered and ignorant men." To these distortions of Jesus's teachings introduced by the apostles were added the distortions introduced by the Church fathers. What were these distortions? Jefferson listed several in another letter on the same subject.

The Immaculate conception of Jesus, His deification, the creation of the world by him, His miraculous powers, His resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of hierarchy etc.

Jefferson became convinced that there was an authentic Jesus, a man, a moral teacher, whose doctrines could be extracted from the New Testament. Late in his life he devoted a great deal of time to assembling what he thought was true life and teachings of Jesus. His efforts became what is now usually referred to as the "Jefferson Bible." Jefferson seems to have become genuinely convinced that there was an authentic and vitally important moral teaching conveyed by Jesus about our duties to others. I say genuinely because it does not seem to me that Jefferson was doing this for tactical political purposes--he did not publish his thoughts in his lifetime--or even for strategic political purposes, say making republicanism safe for the religiously heterodox like himself in the future. It seems to me more like a serious attempt to get the bottom of the subject and especially to explain the power of Christianity in the world.

The second statement by Jefferson--"I ... am an Epicurean"--was made to William Short whom Jefferson described as an "adoptive son." Short was Jefferson's secretary while he was Ambassador to France. Short was an Epicurean. This was the ancient school of philosophy that was reputed and reviled for its atheism and for its notion that pleasure (in a refined and moderate form) is the highest good for human beings and the key to a happy life. How did Jefferson reconcile his Christianity, albeit highly unorthodox Christianity, with his Epicureanism? Jesus he believed taught us about our duties to others. Epicurus taught us our duties to ourselves and, especially, about how to find contentment in this life. Like Jesus Jefferson believed that Epicurus's teaching had been distorted. In this case, it was by his enemies, the Stoics and the Platonists, that the master's doctrines were distorted. The authentic Epicurus was, Jefferson believed, not an enemy of virtue. The real Epicurus believed that happiness consisted in "tranquility of mind." Such a state is best achieved through living a virtuous life and pursuing pleasure in a moderate way so that neither the body nor the mind is disturbed by useless fears and desires.

Was Jefferson an atheist as Epicurus was reputed to be and certainly was? The answer seems to be, "No." Jefferson saw too much order and harmony in the universe. As he wrote to John Adams:

I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible to for the human mind not to perceive ad feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition...it is impossible for the human mind to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a Fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their Preserver and regulator.

Jefferson left some doubt about whether this first cause was a material cause and about whether the world was coeternal with its first cause or God. Yet there seems no doubt that at the end of his life just as when he wrote the Declaration of Independence that he believed that laws of nature were, in some sense, legislated by Nature's God.

Among Jefferson's letters there are some beautiful statements of the order and harmony he saw in the universe. Writing to Abigail Adams in 1817, Jefferson reflected upon the process of growing old.

Our next meeting must be in the country to which they (referring to departed friends) have flown--a country for us not now very distant. For this journey we shall need neither gold nor silver in our purse, nor scrip, nor coats, nor staves. Nor is the provision for it more easy than the preparation has been kind. Nothing proves more than this that the being who presides over the world is essentially benevolent. Stealing from us one by one the faculties of enjoyment, searing our sensibilities, leading us, like the horse in the mill round and round the same beaten circle... Until satiated and fatigued with this leaden iteration we ask our congé (leave).

Thus, Nature's God is benevolent and orderly in that it not only makes possible happiness in this life, but that it makes easy and appropriate our departure from this world.

These I believe were the results of Jefferson's rational inquiry into the subject of religion. The answers he found are less important than the model he provides for our own inquiries when we make reason our only oracle.

--Peter McNamara
Utah State University