Lincoln’s Political Ambitions, Slavery, and the Bible

Edwin D. Freed

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781610979337
  9781498262880
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630873875
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia nordamericana

Abraham Lincoln did not take his family Bible to the White House. And the reason he did not use the Bible in his first inaugural address was not because it failed to arrive in his baggage. Freed concentrates on what Abraham Lincoln himself says instead of what others say about him, which yields insights into understanding Lincoln's speech before the Young Men's Lyceum, his reply to the "Loyal Colored People of Baltimore," and his Second Inaugural Address. The author shows that much of what has been written about Lincoln's knowledge of the Bible and its influence on his thought is myth. Although his language was replete with vocabulary from the Bible, Lincoln's knowledge of it was superficial, and he did not use the Bible to promote religion. He was always a politician, but with a moral sensitivity. With the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, he used the Bible to help him achieve his political ambitions and to support the emancipation of slaves. A unique book on a subject never treated so thoroughly, this is a must-read for all Lincoln admirers.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction - Nur Masalha and Lisa Isherwood
• 1. Liberation Theology in Latin America and Palestine-Israel: Practical Similarities and Contextual Differences - Dr. Samuel J. Kuruvilla
• 2. Reflections on Sabeel’s Liberation Theology and Ecumenical Work (1992–2013) - Dr. Naim Ateek
• 3. Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel and the Struggle for Peace and Justice - Prof. Marc H. Ellis
• 4. Reading the Bible with the Eyes of the Philistines, Canaanites and Amalekites: Messianic Zionism, Zealotocracy, the Militarist Traditions of the Tanakh and the Palestinians (1967 to Gaza 2013) - Prof. Nur Masalha
• 5. God’s Mapmakers: A Theology of Dispossession - Prof. Gareth Lloyd Jones
• 6. The Quest for Peace with Justice in the Middle East: Christian Zionist and Palestinian Theologies - Prof. Rosemary Radford Ruether
• 7. Transcending Monotheism and a Theology of Land - Prof. Lisa Isherwood
• 8. Beyond Interfaith Reconciliation: A New Paradigm for a Theology of Land - Dr. Mark Braverman
• 9. Confronting the Truth: New Awakenings to the Palestinian Situation - Prof. Mary Grey
• 10. Civil Liberation Theology in Palestine: Indigenous, Secular-Humanist, and Post-Colonial Perspectives - Professor Nur Masalha