The Parallel Lives

Two weeks ago in these pages, I discussed Allen Guelzo’s recent book, published on February 6, 2024, entitled, “Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.” 

     In it, the Civil War historian, Allen Guelzo, wrote a series of enlightening essays on his impressions of Lincoln’s thoughts on democracy and the President’s other astonishing attributes.

     In an interview at a bookstore for a book signing months ago, the interviewer, Scott LaMar, asked Professor Guelzo, two questions. “Was Lincoln a religious man? Was he a Christian?”

     Allen Guelzo answers, “No, not in any kind of formal sense. Lincoln never joined a church, and there is no evidence he every participated in any Christian sacrament.

     “Yet, Lincoln attended the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois, and the Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C.”

     Guelzo explains that “Lincoln was a very private and yet complicated individual, who thought a great deal about religion, but he never discussed religion with his colleagues. 

     “Lincoln was brought up in a very strict religious household, but when an adolescent, he rebelled. In his twenties, he declared himself an unbeliever, an aggressive stance that lessened over time, as his adult years rolled forward.

     Guelzo makes a startling statement, “When Lincoln was in the White House, he had more to say about God, with more scope and profundity, than any person who has occupied the office. 

     “The Arc of Lincoln’s rhetoric upon God progresses throughout his presidency until he drafts the Second Inaugural Address, a final written work that resembles a Puritan sermon, a jeremiad.”

     In late 1862, still early in the war, Lincoln is tested because the Confederacy is wining the battles. Guelzo points out that Lincoln looked at the problem like a mathematician, in that he laid down a first axiom, that “the will of God always prevails,” and then he built upon that axiom.

      Lincoln surmised, “God could have given an immediate victory to the Union or to the Confederacy, but He has not permitted that to happen. Why? 

      “If the Union and the Confederacy are still fighting, it is because God does not see that either of the two sides are where He wants them to be. There has to be a further step taken in this war. Lincoln wonders, ‘What is that additional step?’” 

     Guelzo insists that Lincoln concluded that “a great wrong was done in slavery, that both sides were complicit in that moral wrong, and that next step is to emancipate the slaves, set them free.”

     This meditation upon Divine Will, Guelzo points out, reaches deep into Lincoln’s thinking throughout the war’s remaining months and years.

     “Lincoln wonders how to make sense of this terrible and bloody war? How can anyone explain the catastrophe that has unfolded between North and South’s people?”

    When Lincoln sat down to write his Second Inaugural Address, in early 1865, after his election win, “he refuses to talk about God the redeemer, a forgiving God, but instead he talks about a God who judges.”

     Lincoln writes, “Let us judge not, that we be not judged.” “The Almighty has His own purposes.” “Woe unto the world because of offenses!” “American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come.

     “If God wills that it [the war] continue until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

     Near the close of Guelzo’s interview, he asks, “Is this formal religion?” Guelzo answers, “No, but it is not religion-less. It is Lincoln’s insight into Divine providence and God’s judgment.”

     So be it.