Book Review: Washington's God

Michael and Jana Novak's book, Washington's God, is must read for anyone refuting George Washington's Christian heritage. Washington's God, broken into three parts, "The Man," "The Faith," and "The Fruit," portrays the first U.S. President's Christian faith as a major in Virginia's army, through his wisdom and guidance during the Revolutionary War, and by his public reflections on religion's support for a robust and free civil society.

At the beginning of Washington's God, Michael and Jana Novak pose three questions:

1. Was Washington a deist?
2. What is the meaning of the term Providence?
3. Did George Washington use Christianity for political purposes, while secretly being a Deist?

Throughout their book, they meticulously answer them:

1. Was Washington a Deist?

• The Novak's illustrate that Washington believed God to be more than a purely rational "watchmaker" since He intervened at times in human events: "He [Washington] held as a matter of daily practice and frequent prayer the Jewish and Christian view of God, that is, that God interposes his actions in the affairs of history and all through the daily governance of the universe, not by disrupting the laws of nature but by deftly and artistically using the openings discernible in the dazzling array of life's daily contingencies" (224).

2. What is the meaning of Providence?

• The Novak's argue that Washington did not believe Providence was fate or fortune but as the source of Truth: "Washington did not think that the outcome of the War of Independence was inexorably fixed in some tragic and inescapable way. [...] Washington distinguished clearly between false gods and the true God. One of the key differences in this distinction is the recognition of full, total, and universal sovereignty even over the existence of all things" (225).

3. Did Washington use Christianity for political reasons or was he a secret Deist?

• "Anglican Christianity is what he professed. Anglican Christianity is what he acted out. Christian preachers of many faiths recognized him as a model Christian. As we have seen, a family-in-law published much evidence of how the family regarded him as a Christian. [...] His dearest friend, who thought they were two in one soul, his wife, Martha, a quite devout Christian, was certain they were one in mind above all in their mutual confidence in eternal life together. His last words, and her first words on learning that he was gone, were "'Tis well!" - in itself an almost perfect 'Amen'" (226).

Thus, the Novak's explain that Washington's references to "Providence" were not Deist but rather to the Hebrew and Christian "Jehovah." This foundation grounded Washington's understanding of religious freedom since "this new system depends upon the Jewish-Christian conception of a God of spirit and truth, who wishes to be worshipped in freedom. On any other conception of god, the principles of religious liberty lose their point" (118). It is fitting that today, George Washington's birthday, that our first President be properly portrayed for what he was.