Official Review: Franklin on Faith by Bill Fortenberry

[Kappy]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Franklin on Faith" by Bill Fortenberry.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Franklin on Faith: The Definitive Guide to the Religion of the First American (1st ed., 2015), by Bill Fortenberry, is a notable compendium of Benjamin Franklin's writings on religion. Mr. Fortenberry is the sole author or a co-author of several other books relating to the USA's founding fathers, and has a web site that includes numerous Christian-themed articles he has written.

In the four-page introduction to Franklin on Faith, the author tells us the major turning points regarding Ben Franklin's development of his faith. Mr. Fortenberrry ends his introduction with the most important part of the book: his intent when selecting the documents and writing the book. A book written with the intent to prove Ben Franklin's Christianity would be hopelessly biased and therefore of little value. Everybody is biased, but Mr. Fortenberry appears to make a true concerted effort to approach the subject objectively, saying "I have attempted to collect everything that Franklin wrote which could be used to determine his religious beliefs," to allow you, the reader, "to follow the progression of Franklin’s own accounts of his beliefs and to arrive at a more complete understanding of his faith."

Next comes 276 pages of Ben Franklin's writings, including 218 footnotes by Mr. Fortenberry, whose annotations are explanatory, not interpretive. After that is an appendix with a 13-page essay by Mr. Fortenberry on the question "What is it that makes an individual a Christian?" This essay considers Christianity "not as a movement within Western culture but rather as a specific religion in history." Mr. Fortenberry also says that to accurately define Christianity, we must "consider the original usage of that term as recorded in the Book of Acts."

Following the essay is a bibliography with 74 works cited. There is no index, but the table of contents has 95 entries.

Note that English spelling and grammar during Ben Franklin's time were much less standardized than they are now. His writings include numerous apostrophes and capitalizations that will probably appear out of place to you, e.g., "I continu’d however at the Grammar School not quite one Year, tho’ in that time ...."

Ben Franklin's writings in this book are mostly about religion and philosophy. This is not light reading material, so if you want to understand Ben Franklin's beliefs you will need to read the book carefully. Some of the issues presented are deism, hypocrites, liberty and necessity, God's role in the universe, good and evil, pleasure and pain, perfection in life, self-denial and virtue, faith and repentance, the nature of Christianity, and free will.

Included is an anecdote about "the Savages," in which a minister met with the Chiefs of the Saquehanah Indians to acquaint them with "the principal historical Facts on which our Religion is founded, such as the Fall of our first Parents by eating an Apple," after which "an Indian Orator" commented, "It is indeed a bad Thing to eat Apples. It is better to make them all into Cyder."

Franklin on Faith has earned 4 out of 4 stars for the author's thoroughness, objective approach, concise writing style, and extensive explanatory annotations. The book might have earned only one or two stars if the author had approached the subject with an agenda (e.g., to "prove" Ben Franklin's Christianity), or if the author had forced his opinions on the readers via the footnotes. If you find the subject matter interesting, you will likely find it a good read.

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Franklin on Faith
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[bookowlie]

Nice, insightful review. I have always found Ben Franklin fascinating.

[Kappy]

Nice, insightful review. I have always found Ben Franklin fascinating.

Thanks, bookowlie! He was truly one of a kind, with an extraordinarily wide variety of interests and skills.