Modern secularists have been reluctant to recognize Abraham Lincoln's deep spirituality, in spite of the fact that he was often known as "Father Abraham" and has been described as one of the most deeply religious presidents the country has ever seen.  Yet for all of his familiarity with the Bible, his invocation of Providence, and of the Almighty, he did not actively participate in a church or lend his name and authority to a denomination. After more than fifty years of hagiographic and contradictory accounts of Abraham Lincoln's life, William Barton stepped boldly into the bedlam of claims and counterclaims about Lincoln's religion. Armed with an enormous collection of Lincoln materials and his own strict evidentiary rules, Barton worked to avoid partisan politicking over Lincoln's legacy and instead to simply "lay bare the facts." To enable a better examination of the vexed questions surrounding Lincoln's faith and religious principles, Barton gathered Lincoln's most important writing and speeches about religion, and topically and chronologically assembled testimonies by his friends, family, and associates, about the most important and most debated issues. This volume, Barton's first and most important work on Lincoln, is introduced by Michael Nelson who provides a history of the literature on Lincoln's religion, the historical context of Barton's writing, and the details of the method that made Barton's approach to this American icon such a distinctive success.

The Soul of Abraham Lincoln

Biographies & Memoirs

William E. Barton

Historical

University of Illinois Press

Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln and His Books1. The Books that Made LincolnThe boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln had a library of six books, - the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Æsop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Weems' Life of Washington, and a History of the United States. It was an almost ideal collection of books for a young American. We can trace the influence of these six books upon his subsequent career. He could have found no nobler examples of fine and pure literary style than were available to him in King Jame's version of the Bible, in John Bunyan's immortal allegory and in De Foe's masterpiece. The fables of Æsop gave color to his inherent love of illustrative argument.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Abraham Lincoln and His Books (Classic Reprint)

Memoirs

Forgotten Books

Old Plantation Hymns: A Collection of Hitherto Unpublished Melodies of the Slave and the Freedman, With Historical and Descriptive Notes (Classic Reprint)

<p>A grandfather gently persuades a reluctant little boy to wash both</p>

Parables of a Country Parson: Heartwarming Stories of Christian Faith and Life

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Hendrickson Publishers

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Books by William E. Barton