Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty and the Father of Our Country

A leading conservative thinker offers the first in-depth look at the religious life of America’s greatest founding father, George Washington. George Washington has long been viewed as the patron saint of secular government, but in Washington’s God , Michael Novak and his daughter, Jana, reveal that it was Washington’s strong faith in divine Providence that gave meaning and force to his monumental life. Narrowly escaping a British trap during the Battle of Brooklyn, Washington didn’t credit his survival to courage or tactical expertise; he blamed himself for marching his men into certain doom and marvelled at the Providence that delivered them. Throughout his career, Washington held fast to the conviction that America’s liberty was dependent on her citizens’ faithfulness to God’s will and their trust in Providence. Washington’s God shows Washington not only as a man of resource, strength, and virtue, but also as a man with deeply held religious values. This new presentation of Washington - as a man whose religion guided his governance - will bring him into today’s debates about the role of faith in government and will challenge everything we thought we knew about the inner life of the Father of America.