In LINCOLN’S GOD, bestselling author Joshua Zeitz delves deeply into the religious beliefs of Abraham Lincoln and the effect they would have on a nation divided and in chaos.

When Lincoln took office for his first term, seven states seceded, and war broke out two weeks later with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Issues of slavery were at the forefront, making his moral stance an essential piece of his presidency. Raised by a domineering father who held to a strict Calvinist view that included the doctrine of predestination, Lincoln had a mind of his own and wanted to succeed where others, including his father, were willing to accept less than the best.

"Since Lincoln is a figure much studied and often glorified, Zeitz has created a focus that successfully encompasses his personal convictions and public face."

As he campaigned for the nation’s high office, Lincoln’s intellectually lodged, deist understandings would need to be fused within a larger format as he met with faith leaders and addressed abolitionists. Lincoln, who suffered the crushing loss of a son as the war raged on, was no stranger to tragedy and its consequences. Gradually he took on the cloak of religion in language, and, with the Emancipation Proclamation, in deed. The alteration in his beliefs, presented here in fascinating detail by Zeitz, is seen most clearly in his second inaugural address, which is unique for its “religious sentiment and phrasing.”

Since Lincoln is a figure much studied and often glorified, Zeitz has created a focus that successfully encompasses his personal convictions and public face. This includes his disdain for those avowed Christians who could use their Bible to justify the continuation of slavery, and his willingness to encourage believers by addressing that institution head on with the Proclamation, sweeping large blocs of Christian voters to his side. Though it is likely, given the well-researched materials presented here, that Lincoln privately held fast to his personal understanding that God does not take sides, it is equally plain that he believed Black slaves should be freed. He would stand on that principle and face the consequences.

Zeitz portrays the man on the podium and immersed in congressional debate and declaration, as well as the son, husband and father who had to rise beyond the pangs and crises that those roles required. In this thoughtful assessment, Lincoln was someone who learned and grew from his service as the nation’s leader, who was able to state, as the war was reaching its end, that all Americans should proceed “[w]ith malice toward none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right...”