Monday, October 8, 2012
Throckmorton on Barton's Use of Adams' "General Principles of Christianity" Quote
See Warren Throckmorton's remarks here. This was in a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in 1813. This was John Adams at his most heterodox. Out of context, the quotation sounds like something that supports the Christian Nation thesis. Understood in context, however, Adams doesn't refer to what Barton et al. understand as "biblical Christianity," but rather some other very heterodox theological system, what Gregg Frazer has termed "theistic rationalism." It's a system that unites the "orthodox" with Universalists, Unitarians (Arians, Socinians, Priestleyans) and even "Deists and Atheists, and Protestants 'qui ne croyent rien.'" (That means "Protestants who believe in nothing.")
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Adams doesn't refer to what Barton et al. understand as "biblical Christianity," but rather some other very heterodox theological system, what Gregg Frazer has termed "theistic rationalism." It's a system that unites the "orthodox" with Universalists, Unitarians (Arians, Socinians, Priestleyans) and even "Deists and Atheists, and Protestants 'qui ne croyent rien.'" (That means "Protestants who believe in nothing.")
At one point Adams calls Christianity a "revelation." This does not fit with a bland "theistic rationalism," and certainly not with atheism.
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" (letter to Van der Kamp 12/27/1816)
"Revelation" = God speaks directly to man
I think all know I prefer the term rational Christianity. I still do not know why it is supposedly more relevant what these men personally believed rather than the origin of the ideas that the used? This nation was built on ideas not men...
Excellent point Tom... I have my next post mostly typed and on the way. THe prelims are over we are going to get into the meat of where these ideas came from...
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