Dulles on Jefferson

Now here’s news: A Catholic cardinal putting in a good word for Jefferson’s deism. Avery Cardinal Dulles ends an article in the January 2005 issue of First Things with this: “Jefferson would probably have insisted on the positive articles of deism as a required minimum. For him and the other Founding Fathers, the good of society requires a people who believe in one almighty God, in providence, in a divinely given moral code, in a future life, and in divinely administered rewards and punishments. He and they expected that the example and teachings of Jesus, as known from the Gospels, would be accepted in principle by the great majority of citizens. Although Jefferson wanted the state to refrain from meddling in the particulars of religion, he counted on families, churches, and educational institutions to perpetuate and disseminate in more vivid and concrete forms the basic truths also taught in his modern form of deism.” Faced with serious challenges to the American church-state settlement, we in the early 21st century must confront these challenges “as best we can with the help of the Sage of Monticello.”

Well, no thanks. The problems with Dulles’ position are numerous, but let me mention only one: The notion that maintaining a “required deist minimum” is somehow a way of refraining from “meddling in the particulars of religion.” But how is this the case? Suppose the state gives some aid and comfort to the view that there is “one almighty [non-Triune] God,” is that not a particular of religion? And how is that anything BUT meddling with Trinitarian convictions? Oh, and how can the exhortation that churches and families should “disseminate . . . the basic truths . . . taught in his modern form of deism” anything but a call for churches and families to mute their most fundamental convictions for the greater good of American democracy? To reiterate, no thanks. I think it best to work through church-state questions without expecting much help from Jefferson.