The religious beliefs of Thomas Jefferson have been a subject of debate since the election of 1796. Jefferson never clearly stated his beliefs; however he left behind evidence of some of his ideas about God and religion through his writings. Viewing these writings against a backdrop of the period in which he lived, a period of intellectual Enlightenment and increasing skepticism of supernatural religion helps in the understanding of Jefferson’s religious views. Understanding his heritage, education, and the cultural background into which he was born, is a good starting point.
Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia to a prestigious family. Like other young men born into the Virginia gentry he was educated at William and Mary, an Anglican college. Six of the seven professors at William and Mary in Jefferson’s day were Anglican clergymen. The seventh was a man named William Small, who took Jefferson under his wing and advised him on his education.
Jefferson wrote that Small “soon became attached to me , . . .and from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science, and of the system of things in which we are placed.”[1] This Enlightenment thinking to which Jefferson was introduced by Small was coming very much into vogue. After a time of religious wars and disputes between Catholics and Protestants in Europe, many people began to question the superstition of the churches and preferred to think along more rational, scientific lines. To these enlightened thinkers, Reason with a capital R was the basis of everything. If something could not be explained, tested and proven with empirical evidence, then it was not reasonable to believe. These rational thinkers believed that time should not be spent speculating on the world beyond this life; rather, time should be spent investigating the natural world and how it relates to man and man to it.[2] This thinking then forms the foundation in which Jefferson was...