Revolution of 1776 and faith

Cajun Huguenot

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George Bancroft (America’s most important 19th century historian) said this about Calvinism’s influence in the Revolution: "The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster."

The conservative American Roman Catholic scholar Russell Kirk said this “In colonial America, everyone with the rudiments of schooling knew one book thoroughly: The Bible. And the Old Testament mattered as much as the New, for the American colonies were founded in a time of renewed Hebrew scholarship, and the Calvinistic character of Christian faith in early America emphasized the legacy of Israel....” he also wrote “John Calvin's Hebrew scholarship, and his expounding of the doctrine of sin and human depravity, impressed the Old Testament aspect of Christianity more strongly upon America than upon European states or other lands where Christians were in the majority.”


The Roman Catholic Austrian scholar Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said this "If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin the great-grandfather. In saying this, one need not exclude the Virginians because Anglicanism has essentially Calvinistic foundations still recognizable in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Pilgrim Fathers, like the Puritans generally, represented a kind of re-reformed Anglicanism. Though the fashionable eighteenth century Deism may have pervaded some intellectual circles, the prevailing spirit of Americans before and after the War of Independence was essentially Calvinistic . . .”

The great German historian of the 19th century Leopold von Ranke said, “John Calvin was the virtual founder of America

University of Chicago historian Carl Bridenbaugh said, “It is indeed high time we repossess the important historical truth that religion was a fundamental cause of the American Revolution." That religion was Calvinistic and was found mostly among the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptist and even the Anglicans.

Kenith
 

Cajun Huguenot

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USincognito said:
If Calvinism was so influential, why don't we see more of it expressed in the DoI or the Constitution?

The influence was real. These historians got it correct. Those Documents were not theological treatises. That is the reason.

The historian quoted are not Calvinist and some of them are anti-Calvinist so they can't be accused of having a Calvinistic bias.

Kenith
 
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USincognito

a post by Alan Smithee
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O.k. Let's take von Reinke's comment since it's the shortest.

“John Calvin was the virtual founder of America.”

Where do we find this manifested in the ideas of the Declaration of Independance, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Where do we find this manifested in Paine's Common Sense, which basically was the catalyst for many to join the rebellion? Where do we find Calvin's influence in the Federalist Papers, from which "America" would develop?

I really don't know, and I'm asking out of couriostiy.
 
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Cajun Huguenot

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USincognito said:
O.k. Let's take von Reinke's comment since it's the shortest.

Where do we find this manifested in the ideas of the Declaration of Independance, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Where do we find this manifested in Paine's Common Sense, which basically was the catalyst for many to join the rebellion? Where do we find Calvin's influence in the Federalist Papers, from which "America" would develop?

I really don't know, and I'm asking out of couriostiy.

I appreciate your curiosity. I could recommend some books. One that comes to mind right away is Dr. Carl Bridenbaugh's Mitre and Scepter: Transatlantic Faiths, Ideas, Personalities, and Politics 1689-1775. It covers all this subject fairly well.

It is interesting that you mention Tom Paine. It has been many years since I've read Common Sense, but if I remember correctly Paine refers to Scripture a lot in that little pamphlet. He was not a Christian, but he argues things to Christians and that is clear in that little book.

I will try to recommend more reading if you need to know more.

Kenith
 
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