Heartfelt gratitude from an American cousin. Even deeper thanks for calling attention to the book I start rereading every year on this date. I hope this quote will encourage others to pick it up as well.
… “Nature’s God” properly belongs to the radical philosophical religion of deism. It refers to nothing that we commonly mean by the term “God,” but rather to something closer to “Nature.” It tells us that we are and always have been the source of our own authority; that we govern ourselves not through acts of faith but through acts of understanding; and that if we should find ourselves beholden to some other imagined authority, this can only mean that we have constructed the conditions of our own servitude. The Declaration of Independence—precisely where it superficially seems to invoke the blessing of the established religion—really stands for an emancipation of the political order from God.
Stewart, Matthew. Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic (p. 8). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Heartfelt gratitude from an American cousin. Even deeper thanks for calling attention to the book I start rereading every year on this date. I hope this quote will encourage others to pick it up as well.
… “Nature’s God” properly belongs to the radical philosophical religion of deism. It refers to nothing that we commonly mean by the term “God,” but rather to something closer to “Nature.” It tells us that we are and always have been the source of our own authority; that we govern ourselves not through acts of faith but through acts of understanding; and that if we should find ourselves beholden to some other imagined authority, this can only mean that we have constructed the conditions of our own servitude. The Declaration of Independence—precisely where it superficially seems to invoke the blessing of the established religion—really stands for an emancipation of the political order from God.
Stewart, Matthew. Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic (p. 8). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Thanks Carl, I'm glad you enjoyed it - and I'm glad you're a fellow fan of Stewart's book!