JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to John Davis of Worchester, Massachusetts; Monticello, 18 January 1824. 1 full page, 4to. Integral address leaf in Jefferson's hand and with his franking signature ("free Th:Jefferson"). In very fine condition.
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to John Davis of Worchester, Massachusetts; Monticello, 18 January 1824. 1 full page, 4to. Integral address leaf in Jefferson's hand and with his franking signature ("free Th:Jefferson"). In very fine condition. THOMAS JEFFERSON REJOICES "IN EFFORTS TO RESTORE US TO PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY, IN ALL THE SIMPLICITY IN WHICH IT CAME FROM THE LIPS OF JESUS..." A remarkable letter, in which the former president strongly endorses a simple, highly personal Christianity, freed from dogma and orthodoxy, purged of the "maniac ravings" of Calvin and other theological commentators. John Davis has sent Jefferson a copy of a collection of sermons by a noted Unitarian minister, Aaron Bancroft. The principles enunciated by Bancroft dovetail revealingly with Jefferson's long-standing efforts to clarify and distill the genuine teachings of Jesus from the accumulation, over centuries, of misleading Christian orthodoxy. "I thank you, Sir, for the copy...of the Revd. Mr. Bancroft's Unitarian sermons. I have read them with great satisfaction," Jefferson writes, and will "always rejoice in efforts to restore us to primitive Christianity, in all the simplicity in which it came from the lips of Jesus..." He speculates that if Christianity had "never been sophisticated by the subtleties of Commentators, nor paraphrased into meanings totally foreign to its character, it would at this day have been the religion of the whole civilized world." He deplores the fact that "the metaphysical abstractions of Athanasius and the maniac ravings of Calvin, tinctured plentifully with the foggy dreams of Plato, have so loaded it with absurdities and incomprehensibilities as to drive into infidelity men who had not time, patience or opportunity to strip it of its meretricious trappings and to see it in all its native simplicity and purity." But he affirms his conviction that the spirit of the American Revolution coupled with "the same free exercise of private judgment which gave us our political reformation, will extend its effects to that of religion, which the present volume is well calculated to encourage and promote." In closing, Jefferson expresses tolerance of theological differences, and is mindful of the controversies they may spawn: "Not wishing to give offence to those who differ from me in opinion, nor to be implicated in a theological controversy, I have to pray that this letter may not get into print, and to assure you of my great respect and good will." John Davis (1797-1854), a Worcester lawyer and successful politician, had written to Jefferson on January 22, 1824 (Jefferson Papers , Library of Congress). He notes that the former president has shown himself to be "friendly to the exertions...to reestablish the Christian religion upon its primitive basis & to purify its doctrines, "especially from the teachings of third-century Saint and theologian Athanasius of Alexander, Plato and John Calvin (1509-1564). Davis observes with satisfaction that "nearly half of the parishes in this section of the Country are decidedly Unitarian." Davis married one of Aaron Bancroft's daughters (one of his sons beame the noted historian, George Bancroft (1800-1889). Jefferson's non-sectarian attitude towards religious orthodoxy is well known. In a famous letter of June 25, 1819 to Ezra Stiles Ely, he wrote "You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know." When asked to describe his personal beliefs, he demurred: "Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my god and myself alone." And while Jefferson did "discuss his religious beliefs in a few letters written late in life...he rarely touched on this subject in his surviving correspondence" (Letter to Joseph Delaplaine, 25 December 1816, in Papers . ed. J.P. Boyd, et al al, 25 December 1816). In his careful, privately printed Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) Jefferson argued that neither religious orthodoxy nor outright
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to John Davis of Worchester, Massachusetts; Monticello, 18 January 1824. 1 full page, 4to. Integral address leaf in Jefferson's hand and with his franking signature ("free Th:Jefferson"). In very fine condition.
JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson"), to John Davis of Worchester, Massachusetts; Monticello, 18 January 1824. 1 full page, 4to. Integral address leaf in Jefferson's hand and with his franking signature ("free Th:Jefferson"). In very fine condition. THOMAS JEFFERSON REJOICES "IN EFFORTS TO RESTORE US TO PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY, IN ALL THE SIMPLICITY IN WHICH IT CAME FROM THE LIPS OF JESUS..." A remarkable letter, in which the former president strongly endorses a simple, highly personal Christianity, freed from dogma and orthodoxy, purged of the "maniac ravings" of Calvin and other theological commentators. John Davis has sent Jefferson a copy of a collection of sermons by a noted Unitarian minister, Aaron Bancroft. The principles enunciated by Bancroft dovetail revealingly with Jefferson's long-standing efforts to clarify and distill the genuine teachings of Jesus from the accumulation, over centuries, of misleading Christian orthodoxy. "I thank you, Sir, for the copy...of the Revd. Mr. Bancroft's Unitarian sermons. I have read them with great satisfaction," Jefferson writes, and will "always rejoice in efforts to restore us to primitive Christianity, in all the simplicity in which it came from the lips of Jesus..." He speculates that if Christianity had "never been sophisticated by the subtleties of Commentators, nor paraphrased into meanings totally foreign to its character, it would at this day have been the religion of the whole civilized world." He deplores the fact that "the metaphysical abstractions of Athanasius and the maniac ravings of Calvin, tinctured plentifully with the foggy dreams of Plato, have so loaded it with absurdities and incomprehensibilities as to drive into infidelity men who had not time, patience or opportunity to strip it of its meretricious trappings and to see it in all its native simplicity and purity." But he affirms his conviction that the spirit of the American Revolution coupled with "the same free exercise of private judgment which gave us our political reformation, will extend its effects to that of religion, which the present volume is well calculated to encourage and promote." In closing, Jefferson expresses tolerance of theological differences, and is mindful of the controversies they may spawn: "Not wishing to give offence to those who differ from me in opinion, nor to be implicated in a theological controversy, I have to pray that this letter may not get into print, and to assure you of my great respect and good will." John Davis (1797-1854), a Worcester lawyer and successful politician, had written to Jefferson on January 22, 1824 (Jefferson Papers , Library of Congress). He notes that the former president has shown himself to be "friendly to the exertions...to reestablish the Christian religion upon its primitive basis & to purify its doctrines, "especially from the teachings of third-century Saint and theologian Athanasius of Alexander, Plato and John Calvin (1509-1564). Davis observes with satisfaction that "nearly half of the parishes in this section of the Country are decidedly Unitarian." Davis married one of Aaron Bancroft's daughters (one of his sons beame the noted historian, George Bancroft (1800-1889). Jefferson's non-sectarian attitude towards religious orthodoxy is well known. In a famous letter of June 25, 1819 to Ezra Stiles Ely, he wrote "You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know." When asked to describe his personal beliefs, he demurred: "Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my god and myself alone." And while Jefferson did "discuss his religious beliefs in a few letters written late in life...he rarely touched on this subject in his surviving correspondence" (Letter to Joseph Delaplaine, 25 December 1816, in Papers . ed. J.P. Boyd, et al al, 25 December 1816). In his careful, privately printed Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) Jefferson argued that neither religious orthodoxy nor outright
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