Bonds of Affection: Civic Charity and the Making of America--Winthrop, Jefferson, and Lincoln

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Georgetown University Press, 04.10.2007 - 336 Seiten

Notions of Christian love, or charity, strongly shaped the political thought of John Winthrop, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln as each presided over a foundational moment in the development of American democracy. Matthew Holland examines how each figure interpreted and appropriated charity, revealing both the problems and possibilities of making it a political ideal.

Holland first looks at early American literature and seminal speeches by Winthrop to show how the Puritan theology of this famed 17th century governor of the Massachusetts Colony (he who first envisioned America as a "City upon a Hill") galvanized an impressive sense of self-rule and a community of care in the early republic, even as its harsher aspects made something like Jefferson's Enlightenment faith in liberal democracy a welcome development . Holland then shows that between Jefferson's early rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and his First Inaugural Jefferson came to see some notion of charity as a necessary complement to modern political liberty.

However, Holland argues, it was Lincoln and his ingenious blend of Puritan and democratic insights who best fulfilled the promise of this nation's "bonds of affection." With his recognition of the imperfections of both North and South, his humility in the face of God's judgment on the Civil War, and his insistence on "charity for all," including the defeated Confederacy, Lincoln personified the possibilities of religious love turned civic virtue.

Weaving a rich tapestry of insights from political science and literature and American religious history and political theory, Bonds of Affection is a major contribution to the study of American political identity. Matthew Holland makes plain that civic charity, while commonly rejected as irrelevant or even harmful to political engagement, has been integral to our national character.

The book includes the full texts of Winthrop's speech "A Model of Christian Charity"; Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration and his First Inaugural; and Lincoln's Second Inaugural.

Im Buch

Inhalt

Bonds of AffectionThree Founding Moments
1
Winthrop and Americas Point of Departure
19
Hawthornes Suggestion
21
A Model of Christian Charity
27
Two Cities upon a Hill
56
Jefferson and the Founding
91
1776The Other Declaration
93
A Model of Natural Liberty
97
Hail Fall of Fury Reign of Reason All Hail
169
This Nation Under God
200
A Model of Civic Charity
219
Bonds of Freedom
241
John Winthrops A Model of Christian Charity Speech
261
Thomas Jeffersons original Rough draught of the Declaration of Independence
277
Thomas Jeffersons First Inaugural
283
Abraham Lincolns Second Inaugural
289

To Close the Circle of Our Felicities
128
Lincoln and the Refounding of America
159
From Tom to Abe
161
BIBLIOGRAPHY
291
INDEX
309
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Autoren-Profil (2007)

Matthew S. Holland is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Brigham Young University.

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