Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government

In this text, Lucas Morel examines what the public life of Abraham Lincoln teaches about the role of religion in a self-governing society. Lincon’s understanding of the requirements of republican government led him to accommodate and direct religios sentiment toward responsioble self-government. As a successful republic requires a moral or self-controlled people, Lincoln believed, the moral and religious sensibilities of a society should be nurtured.