Abraham Lincolns Political Faith

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Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith

Author : Joseph R. Fornieri
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780875806051
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith by : Joseph R. Fornieri

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith written by Joseph R. Fornieri and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At Gettysburg Lincoln resolved that "this nation, under God," would not perish, and in his Second Inaugural he called for "firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." How are we to understand these and other invocations of divine authority in the speeches and writings of America's most admired president? Exploring Lincoln's unique blending of religion and politics, Fornieri shows that Lincoln presented a comprehensive and compelling interpretation of political order founded upon American democratic and religious traditions. Proslavery theologians based their claims to legitimacy on Scripture, but Lincoln denounced this position as incompatible with true religion, reason, and republicanism. He envisioned instead a united nation that would honor both God and American political principles. Fornieri casts Lincoln's unique combination of politics and piety as "biblical republicanism"--a merging of Judeo-Christian beliefs and the founders' tradition of self-government. In a time of unprecedented crisis and upheaval, biblical republicanism provided Lincoln with a moral justification for difficult political choices. Fornieri demonstrates the sincerity of Lincoln's belief and reveals the remarkable consistency between his public and private religious views. Though Lincoln's faith deepened during the turbulent war years and after the death of his son, Willie, his articulation of this faith remained consistent throughout much of his life. Convinced that religion was a crucial aspect of life, Lincoln maintained that his own faith guided and shaped his political thought. In contrast to scholars who have emphasized the Lyceum Address as the key to understanding Lincoln's religion and politics, Fornieri brings forth the Peoria Address of 1854 as a more profound and mature reflection of Lincoln's political faith. At Peoria, Lincoln invoked the Declaration of Independence as the nation's moral covenant, characterizing the struggle over extending slavery as a clash between rival political faiths. He emphasized that the Union was worthy of preservation in light of the Declaration's principles of liberty and equality, and that these principles were best secured under the auspices of national Union committed to the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith sheds new light on how the Great Emancipator's personal trust in a living God shaped his vision for a new America.

The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln

Author : Philip L. Ostergard
Publisher : NavPress
ISBN 13 : 1496415469
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (964 download)

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Book Synopsis The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by : Philip L. Ostergard

Download or read book The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln written by Philip L. Ostergard and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not long after Lincoln's assassination, the debate began: Was Lincoln a committed Christian or a confirmed skeptic? Scholar Philip Ostergard provides the answer with a thorough study of the president's references to God, the Bible, and Christian principles in his letters and speeches. The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln illustrates the depth of Lincoln's knowledge of Scripture; the Bible's influence on his character; and the development of his faith, particularly as he wrestled with the issue of slavery and led the nation through the tumultuous years of the Civil War. Readers will find this a fascinating and inspiring handbook of answers to the questions about one of our greatest presidents.

Abraham Lincoln and American Political Religion

Author : Glen E. Thurow
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780873953344
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (533 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln and American Political Religion by : Glen E. Thurow

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln and American Political Religion written by Glen E. Thurow and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1976-01-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lincoln's major public speeches are examined in this analysis of his attempt to create a political religion through his language of intense religious feeling.

Essays on Lincoln's Faith and Politics

Author : Kenneth W. Thompson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Essays on Lincoln's Faith and Politics by : Kenneth W. Thompson

Download or read book Essays on Lincoln's Faith and Politics written by Kenneth W. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics

Author : Stewart Lance Winger
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780875803005
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics by : Stewart Lance Winger

Download or read book Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics written by Stewart Lance Winger and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nature of Abraham Lincoln's religious beliefs is perhaps the most perplexing enigma of his legacy. Examining the relationship between Lincoln's religious language and antebellum political culture, Winger offers a new perspective on the Great Emancipator. Lincoln's greatest speeches, Winger shows, articulate a Romantic Protestant vision of American identity and destiny. Recent considerations of Lincoln's religion have presented conflicting views of the president as either a conventional nineteenth-century evangelical or a skeptic in the tradition of Thomas Paine. Winger offers an illuminating alternative based on the connections between Lincoln's personal piety and his public performance. Exploring Lincoln's quest for the moral basis of politics, Winger shows that Lincoln's religious language reflected a poetic, Romantic understanding of faith and its political implications. A man who took ideas seriously, Lincoln conducted a decades-long dialogue with Stephen Douglas and George Bancroft about popular sovereignty and America's place in history. Although the Lincoln-Douglas debates became almost theological arguments about the ethics of slavery in a democracy, they were carried out in the context of intense party politics and personal ambition. Throughout, Lincoln expressed an intellectually grounded piety that placed his beloved Union under the judgment of both history and God. The crisis of war transformed and deepened Lincoln's religious politics, and the Second Inaugural Address reveals a Lincoln brought to humility by his powerlessness before God's commanding will. Lincoln, Religion, and Romantic Cultural Politics presents a powerful vision of Lincoln, one that will challenge and intrigue everyone interested in this towering figure.

The Language of Liberty

Author : Joseph R. Fornieri
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1596980958
Total Pages : 824 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (969 download)

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Book Synopsis The Language of Liberty by : Joseph R. Fornieri

Download or read book The Language of Liberty written by Joseph R. Fornieri and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-01-11 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil War is a defining event in American history and Abraham Lincoln is the central figure of both the Civil War and American history. In his struggle to preserve the Union and redeem the nation from the original sin of slavery, Abraham Lincoln provided the most compelling expression of the American Dream and the preeminent justification of the American regime. Indeed, at Gettysburg he distilled the very essence of the nation's political creed. His political thought and leadership are of enduring significance to democracy at home and abroad. To further appreciate and perpetuate Lincoln's legacy, The Language of Liberty offers the definitive one-volume collection of the Sixteenth President's speeches and writings. Unlike so many other collections, in which Lincoln's speeches and writings have been substantially edited, this volume provides a comprehensive selection of the Sixteenth President's most important speeches and writings in their entirety. The volume is conveniently divided both chronologically and thematically into five periods/chapters from 1832-1865. A final chapter offers a compilation of Lincoln's speeches and writings on the theme of religion and politics. Each speech is preceded by an informative head-note, which places Lincoln's words in context for the reader. In addition, each period/chapter includes a concise historical, political, and biographical overview of the major events in Lincoln's life and the life of the nation, thereby providing an even wider context for understanding the Sixteenth President's language of liberty. To assist the reader, crucial terms, dates, events and issues of the Civil War have been defined. Also unique to this volume is the final section on Lincoln's Political Faith, which includes an offering of his public and private utterances on religion, and a definition of this political faith based upon the first principles of the Declaration of Independence. A selected bibliography of secondary sources has been included for further reading on various topics related to the Sixteenth President. Finally, the volume includes an extensive introduction on Lincoln's Prudent Leadership and his application of the natural law to the circumstances of the Civil War Era. Indeed, this introduction provides a crucial understanding of the relationship between Lincoln's political thought and political action, between the world of theory and practice. In sum, The Language of Liberty provides an indispensable guide to the lay reader, the Lincoln aficionado, and the scholar. All now have access to a single volume collection of his great political speeches and writings with unedited versions, concise historical overviews, and scholarly reflections on the enduring significance of Lincoln's political philosophy.

Lincoln Revisited

Author : Harold Holzer
Publisher : Fordham University Press
ISBN 13 : 082324086X
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln Revisited by : Harold Holzer

Download or read book Lincoln Revisited written by Harold Holzer and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 2009, America celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet’s politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents. Lincoln Revisited is a masterly guidePub to what’s new and what’s noteworthy in this unfolding story—a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates—including those about their own landmark works. Here, these well-known historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln’s legacy—from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln’s private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime. The eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln’s world—religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination. In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln's Sacred Effort

Author : Lucas E. Morel
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 9780739101063
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln's Sacred Effort by : Lucas E. Morel

Download or read book Lincoln's Sacred Effort written by Lucas E. Morel and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucas Morel examines what the public life of Abraham Lincoln teaches about the role of religion in a self-governing society. Lincoln's understanding of the requirements of republican government led him to accommodate and direct religious sentiment toward responsible self-government. As a successful republic requires a moral or self-controlled people, Lincoln believed, the moral and religious sensibilities of a society should be nurtured.

Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love

Author : Grant N. Havers
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
ISBN 13 : 0826272061
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love by : Grant N. Havers

Download or read book Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love written by Grant N. Havers and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2009-11-13 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America has seen faith-based initiatives and “the audacity of hope” in twenty-first-century politics, but few participants in our political scene have invoked the other Christian virtue of charity as a guiding principle. Abraham Lincoln extolled the merit of “loving thy neighbor as thyself,” especially as a critique of the hypocrisy of slavery, but a discussion of Christian love is noticeably absent from today’s debates about religion and democracy. In this provocative book, Grant Havers argues that charity is a central tenet of what Lincoln once called America’s “political religion.” He explores the implications of making Christian love the highest moral standard for American democracy, showing how Lincoln’s legacy demands that a true democracy be charitable toward all—and that only a people who lived according to such ideals could succeed in building democracy as Lincoln understood it. Havers argues that it is simplistic to conflate Lincoln’s invocation of “with charity for all” with his abiding support for the ideal of human equality. The ethic of charity in his view also brought a uniquely Christian realism to the universalism of democracy. He also describes how, since World War I, intellectuals and political leaders have denied that there exists a necessary relation between democracy and Christian love, proposing that democracy is sufficiently ethical without reliance on a specific religious tradition. Today’s neoconservatives and liberals instead posit a universal yearning for democracy that requires no foundation in the ethic of charity. Havers shows that this democratic universalism, espoused by those who believe a “chosen people” should uphold the natural rights of humanity, is alien to the sober thought of both the founders and Lincoln. This carefully argued work defends Lincoln’s understanding of charity as essential to democracy while emphasizing the difficulty of fusing this ethic with the desire to spread democracy to people who do not share America’s Christian heritage. In considering the prospect of America’s leaders rediscovering a moral foreign policy based on charity rather than the costly idolization of democracy, Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love makes a timely contribution to the wider debate over both the meaning of religion in American politics and the mission of America in the world—and opens a new window on Lincoln’s lasting legacy.

Abraham Lincoln

Author : Allen C. Guelzo
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780802842930
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (429 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln by : Allen C. Guelzo

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln written by Allen C. Guelzo and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the sixteenth president explores Lincoln's life and political career along with insights into his philosophy, religious views, and moral character.

Lincoln's Political Thought

Author : George Kateb
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674745167
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln's Political Thought by : George Kateb

Download or read book Lincoln's Political Thought written by George Kateb and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most influential philosophers of liberalism turns his attention to the complexity of Lincoln’s political thought. At the center of Lincoln’s career is an intense passion for equality, a passion that runs so deep in the speeches, messages, and letters that it has the force of religious conviction for Lincoln. George Kateb examines these writings to reveal that this passion explains Lincoln’s reverence for both the Constitution and the Union. The abolition of slavery was not originally a tenet of Lincoln’s political religion. He affirmed almost to the end of his life that the preservation of the Union was more important than ending slavery. This attitude was consistent with his judgment that at the founding, the agreement to incorporate slaveholding into the Constitution, and thus secure a Constitution, was more vital to the cause of equality than struggling to keep slavery out of the new nation. In Kateb’s reading, Lincoln destroys the Constitution twice, by suspending it as a wartime measure and then by enacting the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. The first instance was an effort to save the Constitution; the second was an effort to transform it, by making it answer the Declaration’s promises of equality. The man who emerges in Kateb’s account proves himself adequate to the most terrible political situation in American history. Lincoln’s political life, however, illustrates the unsettling truth that in democratic politics—perhaps in all politics—it is nearly impossible to do the right thing for the right reasons, honestly stated.

Lincoln's Battle with God

Author : Stephen Mansfield
Publisher : Thomas Nelson
ISBN 13 : 159555419X
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (955 download)

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Book Synopsis Lincoln's Battle with God by : Stephen Mansfield

Download or read book Lincoln's Battle with God written by Stephen Mansfield and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join New York Times bestselling author Stephen Mansfield as he dives into the incredible story of Abraham Lincoln's spiritual life and draws from it a deeper meaning that's sure to inspire us all. Abraham Lincoln is, undoubtedly, among the most beloved of all U.S. presidents. He helped to abolish slavery, gave the world some of its most memorable speeches, and redefined the meaning of America. He did all of this with endless wisdom, compassion, and wit. Yet, throughout his life, Lincoln fought with God. In his early years in Illinois, he rejected even the existence of God and became the village atheist. In time, this changed but still, he wrestled with the truth of the Bible, preachers, doctrines, the will of God, the providence of God, and then, finally, God's purposes in the Civil War. Still, on the day he was shot, Lincoln said he longed to go to Jerusalem to walk in the Savior's steps. In this thrilling journey through a largely unknown part of American history, Mansfield traces Lincoln's exploring: Lincoln's lifelong spiritual journey The ways that Lincoln's faith shaped his presidency and beyond How Lincoln's struggle with faith can inspire modern believers Let Lincoln's Battle with God show you Lincoln's life and legacy in a brand new light.

Abraham Lincoln’s Religion

Author : Stephen J. Vicchio
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 153264163X
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln’s Religion by : Stephen J. Vicchio

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln’s Religion written by Stephen J. Vicchio and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a summary and analysis of Abraham Lincoln's religion. This study begins with a description of the earliest relations Mr. Lincoln had with religion, his parents' dedication to a sect known as the "Separate Baptists." By late adolescence, Lincoln began to reject his parents' faith, and he appears to have been a religious skeptic until his marriage to Mary Todd. After his marriage, he attended Protestant services with his wife and family, but there was little evidence that he was deeply religious in that time. Lincoln knew the Scriptures quite well, but it was not until the death of his two sons, Eddie in 1850 and Willie in 1862, that as the sixteenth president put it, "He became more intensely concerned with God's Plan for human kind."

Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman

Author : Joseph R. Fornieri
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 0809333309
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman by : Joseph R. Fornieri

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman written by Joseph R. Fornieri and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2014-06-04 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2015 ISHS Superior Achievement Award What constitutes Lincoln’s political greatness as a statesman? As a great leader, he saved the Union, presided over the end of slavery, and helped to pave the way for an interracial democracy. His great speeches provide enduring wisdom about human equality, democracy, free labor, and free society. Joseph R. Fornieri contends that Lincoln’s political genius is best understood in terms of a philosophical statesmanship that united greatness of thought and action, one that combined theory and practice. This philosophical statesmanship, Fornieri argues, can best be understood in terms of six dimensions of political leadership: wisdom, prudence, duty, magnanimity, rhetoric, and patriotism. Drawing on insights from history, politics, and philosophy, Fornieri tackles the question of how Lincoln’s statesmanship displayed each of these crucial elements. Providing an accessible framework for understanding Lincoln’s statesmanship, this thoughtful study examines the sixteenth president’s political leadership in terms of the traditional moral vision of statecraft as understood by epic political philosophers such as Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Fornieri contends that Lincoln’s character is best understood in terms of Aquinas’s understanding of magnanimity or greatness of soul, the crowning virtue of statesmanship. True political greatness, as embodied by Lincoln, involves both humility and sacrificial service for the common good. The enduring wisdom and timeless teachings of these great thinkers, Fornieri shows, can lead to a deeper appreciation of statesmanship and of its embodiment in Abraham Lincoln. With the great philosophers and books of western civilization as his guide, Fornieri demonstrates the important contribution of normative political philosophy to an understanding of our sixteenth president. Informed by political theory that draws on the classics in revealing the timelessness of Lincoln’s example, his interdisciplinary study offers profound insights for anyone interested in the nature of leadership, statesmanship, political philosophy, political ethics, political history, and constitutional law.

The Faith of Abraham Lincoln

Author : William Harrison Lambert
Publisher : Palala Press
ISBN 13 : 9781346434179
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis The Faith of Abraham Lincoln by : William Harrison Lambert

Download or read book The Faith of Abraham Lincoln written by William Harrison Lambert and published by Palala Press. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian?

Author : John E. Remsburg
Publisher : DigiCat
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (596 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian? by : John E. Remsburg

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln: Was He a Christian? written by John E. Remsburg and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost immediately after the remains of America's most illustrious son were laid to rest at Springfield, one of his biographers put forward the claim that he was a devout believer in Christianity. The claim was promptly denied by the dead statesman's friends, but only to be renewed again, and again denied. And thus for a quarter of a century the question of Abraham Lincoln's religious belief has been tossed like a battledoor from side to side. As a result of this controversy, thousands have become interested in a subject that otherwise might have excited but little interest. This is the writer's apology for collecting the testimony of more than one hundred witnesses, and devoting more than three hundred pages to the question, "Was Lincoln a Christian?" The writer believes that he has fully established the negative of the proposition that forms the title of his book. He does not expect to silence the claims of the affirmative; but he has furnished an arsenal of facts whereby these claims may be exposed and refuted as often as made. This effort to prove that Lincoln was not a Christian will be condemned by many as an attempt to fasten a stain upon this great man's character. But the demonstration and perpetuation of this fact will only add to his greatness. It will show that he was in advance of his generation. The fame of Abraham Lincoln belongs not to this age alone, but will endure for all time.

Abraham Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address": The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion

Author : Katharina E. Thomas
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3640930835
Total Pages : 22 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (49 download)

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Book Synopsis Abraham Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address": The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion by : Katharina E. Thomas

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address": The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion written by Katharina E. Thomas and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-06-03 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Rhetoric / Elocution / Oratory, grade: 1,3, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, course: Allgemeine Rhetorik, language: English, abstract: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has played a powerful role in shaping American public discourse over the centuries. It has become one of the central documents in the evolution of American civil religion – imbued with religious and biblical language and imagery, backed by the ethos of its orator, its rhetoric sanctifies the founding documents and itself becomes part of the canon of “holy writ” of American civil religion. This is all the more remarkable considering the fact that Lincoln was originally only supposed to deliver a few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield as a cemetery for the fallen soldiers. The main speaker, Edward Everett, had already given a long speech when Lincoln’s turn came. The situation which thus presented itself to the orator posed a considerable challenge, as the audience was already weary. It is therefore all the more fascinating to see how Lincoln succeeded in his short, dense speech – which did not even give the photographer sufficient time to take his picture – in molding American identity by fusing “organic union with transcendent purpose by utilizing the religious symbolism of the Christian tradition” (White 97). This paper will examine how the Gettysburg Address came to be one of the central documents of American civil religion, which had a significant influence on all future public discourse.First, it will provide a brief discussion of Abraham Lincoln as an orator. This aspect is important insofar as it is necessary to determine what role his personal ethos played in the Gettysburg Address. The main part will offer a close reading of the Gettysburg Address, focusing on an in-depth analysis of the rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices Lincoln employs. This part is concerned especially with the question of how these strategies contribute to the enduring significance of the Gettysburg Address as a central document of American civil religion.