Yale University Press
Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father
Key Metrics
- Thomas S Kidd
- Yale University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780300217490
- 9.3 X 6.4 X 1 inches
- 1.2 pounds
- Biography & Autobiography > Political
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century American layperson. Born to Boston Puritans, by his teenage years Franklin had abandoned the exclusive Christian faith of his family and embraced deism. But Franklin, as a man of faith, was far more complex than the thorough deist who emerges in his autobiography. As Thomas Kidd reveals, deist writers influenced Franklin's beliefs, to be sure, but devout Christians in his life--including George Whitefield, the era's greatest evangelical preacher; his parents; and his beloved sister Jane--kept him tethered to the Calvinist creed of his Puritan upbringing. Based on rigorous research into Franklin's voluminous correspondence, essays, and almanacs, this fresh assessment of a well-known figure unpacks the contradictions and conundrums faith presented in Franklin's life.
Author Bio
Thomas S Kidd is a distinguished Professor of History, and teaches at Baylor University James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History and Associate Director, Institute for Studies of Religion.
Recent publications include
- Who Is an Evangelical?: The History of a Movement in Crisis (Yale University Press, 2019)
- Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father (Yale University Press, 2017)
- American Colonial History: Clashing Cultures and Faiths (Yale University Press, 2016)
- Baptists in America: A History, with Barry Hankins (Oxford University Press, 2015)
- Education
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 2001
- Research Interests
"My research interests are in eighteenth-century North America, particularly the history of evangelicalism."
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