Jon Rowe has another post up about the Founding Fathers and theistic rationalism, a subject on which he and I have both written a good deal. It includes a long quote from Gregg Frazer, a historian who did his dissertation on that subject and is the man who invented the term as a description of the views of 8 leading framers of the Declaration and the Constitution (Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams, Washington, Hamilton, Morris and Wilson).
It is interesting to note that Frazer himself is a theologically conservative Christian, so much so that he believes in a literal 6 day creation. All the more credit to him, then, for bucking the "Christian nation" party line that is so common among others who share his philosophical view. He rightly corrects both sides in the founding fathers disputes, those who claim that all of the founders were Christian and those who claim that they were deists. Having spent the better part of 20 years exploring the views of those men, I've never come across a more apt description of their genuine views than Frazer's.
And coincidentally, yesterday was James Madison's birthday.
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He definitely can't get enough of that topic.
It is interesting to note that Frazer himself is a theologically conservative Christian [...]. All the more credit to him, then, for bucking the "Christian nation" party line that is so common among others who share his philosophical view.
The usual marks of a true professional historian. They seem to go extinct nowadays (this guy is old, right?) and become replaced by rabid ideologues or people writing books with sales in mind.
Roman-
Frazer is not old. In fact, I think he's quite young. I just think that trait is rare in any age. All the more reason to praise his objectivity.
Frazer's pic and mini bio can be seen HERE. Doesn't appear to be an old fogey to me.
I happen to know that Frazer is 50 years old, as of February, 2006. You can decide for yourself whether that's old or not.
By the way, thanx for the kudos.