Description

The late Alan Heimert, Professor of American Literature at Harvard University and author of “Religion and the American Mind”, said that the evidence gathered by Mark Beliles for this book provides, “truly new and original insight into the religious atmosphere of pre-Revolutionary Virginia, adding immeasurably to Thomas Jefferson’s own intellectual biography.”

After another decade of preparation the evidence has finally been compiled and edited for the “Selected Religious Letters and Papers of Thomas Jefferson.”

Never before have most of Jefferson’s religious correspondence and documented religious actions been collected into one volume. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, published by Princeton University Press, have yet to publish many of Jefferson’s correspondence from over fifteen years of his life. But Beliles has taken on the enormous task of bringing over 50 letters written by Jefferson into print here for the first time ever. But another 70 previously unpublished letters written to Jefferson from religious leaders and communities of faith are also included that provide new insight into Jefferson’s religious beliefs and activities. Furthermore, entries from Jefferson’s Memorandum Books and other documents are interspersed in the text that provide additional context to the correspondence. The work is valuable for scholars but also interesting to many readers interested in Jefferson and America’s founding era.

Edited and introduced by Mark A. Beliles

Hardcover
430 pages