Religion

[Michael Hoover]

> Jefferson certainly regarded himself as a 'real' Christian but his
> theology was hardly acceptable to orthodox Protestants then or
> now.  For him Jesus was a moral teacher not a god.  Jefferson
> indeed created his own version of the Gospels in which he attempted to
> remove all traces of superstition which he maintained did
> not reflect the true teachings of Jesus but which had been
> added on by his disciples following his death.
> Jefferson's deism was also interesting in that he combined
> a belief in God with the materialist philosophical outlook
> that he picked up in France.  Not unlike Thomas Hobbes, Jefferson
> conceived of God as a material substance.
> Jim Farmelant

Jefferson thought that doctrines of Jesus offered most sublime system
of morality.  Certainly he had little regard for theological debates: 
questions concerning trinity (his own person trinity was composed of
Bacon, Locke & Newton), transubstantiation, and immaculate conception 
being too metaphysical for him.  Re. latter, his 'faith' in scientific
progress and continual enlightenment led him to write to John Adams
(bitter enemies began corresponding in their twilight years) that
the immaculate conception would one day be relegated to status of 
generation of Minerva fable.   Michael Hoover