Day 13. September 29, 2006
Movement 1. Dei Filius
Lecture 6. Jesus and the Enlightenment (Part 2)
In the late 18th century, the Christian God became America's God, as Billings' Chester (America's original anthem) and his hymn Independence illustrate. Yet the political realm created in the Constitution was wholly secular, excluding religion. Benjamin Franklin illustrates this distinctly American tension. He summarized his influential view of America's public religion in the dictum, "Imitate Jesus and Socrates." Franklin emphasized Calvin's absolutely sovereign God, ever present but ever distant. Jesus like Socrates provided a personally and socially important model of true humility and modesty in the face of that all-powerful and inscrutable God. Good deeds, not a good heart, Franklin believed, would lead to moral improvement and be rewarded.