Overview

"Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called ""providence""), Franklin became one of Philadelphia's most prominent leaders, a world recognized scientist, and the United States' leading diplomat during the War for Independence. Along the way, Franklin embodied the Protestant ethics and cultural habits he learned and observed as a youth in Puritan Boston. Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant follows Franklin's remarkable career through the lens of the trends and innovations that the Protestant Reformation started (both directly and indirectly) almost two centuries earlier. His work as a printer, civic reformer, institution builder, scientist, inventer, writer, self-help dispenser, politician, and statesmen was deeply rooted in the culture and outlook that Protestantism nurtured. Through its alternatives to medieval church and society, Protestants built societies and instilled habits of character and mind that allowed figures such as Franklin to build the life that he did. Through it all, Franklin could not assent to all of Protestantism's doctrines or observe its worship, but for most of his life he acknowledged his debt to his creator, revelled in the natural world guided by providence, and conducted himself in a way (imperfectly) to merit divine approval. In this biography, D. G. Hart recognizes Franklin as a cultural or non-observant Protestant, someone who thought of himself as a Presbyterian, ordered his life as other Protestants did, sometimes went to worship services, read his Bible, and prayed, but could not go all the way and join a church."

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9780198788997

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I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review * A thoughtful counter to those conservative Christian writers who portray America's founders as essentially Christian despite those founders' rejections of core Christian doctrines. * Professor George Marsden, New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church * I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non-scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review * Sprightly and persuasive book. * Peter Thompson, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *

I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review * A thoughtful counter to those conservative Christian writers who portray America's founders as essentially Christian despite those founders' rejections of core Christian doctrines. * Professor George Marsden, New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church * I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non-scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review * Sprightly and persuasive book. * Peter Thompson, Journal of Ecclesiastical History * Hart's biography is both engaging and thought-provoking, and it will appeal to a general audience and scholars alike. * Kevin Slack, Church History *

I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review * A thoughtful counter to those conservative Christian writers who portray America's founders as essentially Christian despite those founders' rejections of core Christian doctrines. * Professor George Marsden, New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church * I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non-scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review *

I highly recommend this work for both scholars and non-scholars. * Stephen Wolfe, Religious Studies Review *

Author Information

D. G. Hart is Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College. His publications include American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2020), Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken (Eerdmans, 2016), and Calvinism: A History (Yale University Press, 2013).

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