The Life and Morals of Jesus Christ

Thomas Jefferson

In 1804, Thomas Jefferson, both a rationalist and a deist, decided to sit down with a copy of the Bible (four of them, actually; the original text of this book had parallel columns with English, French, Latin, and Greek texts), excise the best bits of the Gospels, and turn them into a book that Christianity could embrace, casting off all the dogma and silliness that, Jefferson believed, stemmed from Paul (whom Jefferson called "the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus"). He didn't realize at the time that this project would take him, on and off, sixteen years.

In 1820, however, Jefferson finished, and the book has been in print ever since (though for most of its twentieth-century existence, only available for purchase at Monticello). Recent years have seen a groundswell of interest in the Jefferson Bible," as it is known, and a number of new editions have appeared. Mine has an introduction by Forrest Church and an afterward by Jaroslav Pelikan. I mention this because, in fact, there's no real reason to review the text of the book itself; if you've read the Bible, you've read this (although reading this may put some of the Gospels in an entirely new light for you).

Church's introduction is a wonderful, wonderful thing. He recounts much of the history of Jefferson's project, and some of the cultural influences that caused him to abandon it and take it up again later, in the process painting a picture of a few of our founding fathers. It's wonderfully readable, not nearly the dry, boring text one so often finds in introductory pieces, and it alone is worth the price of admission here.

Pelikan's afterword, while not quite as fascinating as the introduction, is also quite valuable. Whereas Church focuses on the construction of the document, Pelikan addresses its theology, specifically in comparison with authors contemporary to Jefferson. Church puts the book into context with American culture, Pelikan with European.

It's fantastic stuff. Highly recommended.