Heavily researched yet conversationally written, this book dispels common myths about 17th- and 18th-century deists. The stereotypical understanding of deism is belief in a distant, inactive God and a world that operates according to strict mechanical laws. Through engagement with abundant primary resources, Waligore shows that the majority of deists believed in an active God, miracles, and the effectiveness of prayer. The book is extremely well documented, making verifying the author's claims easy for readers—which is important in the myth-busting genre. Because of the conversational prose, the relevant background information discussed, and the use of endnotes, the book is appropriate for scholars and non-scholars alike. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

This profound book changes our gaze on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century religious culture. It has also important implications for an understanding of the Founding Fathers, and of American culture until the present day. Exploring the thought both of major figures and of little-known authors by examining a wide range of sources, it challenges common misconceptions of deism: deists did not usually believe in a distant God, and were not secularists. Walligore takes his reader on a journey into a world of warm religious feelings and hopes.

Damien Tricoire, Trier University, Germany

This is an important and groundbreaking work of intellectual history. Through voluminous research, Waligore liberates deism from its clichéd association with both Enlightenment secularism and a distant, clock-making God and presents, instead, a powerfully provocative portrait of early deism as a deeply spiritual religious movement. Waligore’s sensitive recasting of deism frees it from stereotypical conflation with atheism, secularism, scientific materialism, or sterile rationality. Indeed, the deists that populate Waligore’s pages espoused the rationalism of natural religion and, at the same time, believed in a surprisingly active God committed to human fairness. Importantly, Waligore’s book fundamentally re-thinks the nature of deism in Western thought and, in the process, offers a compelling argument for the cultural relevance and resiliency of deistic ideas from their founding in the 17th century through the mid-19th century. The book is engagingly written, exhaustively researched, and surprises its readers with an unexpected and thought-provoking portrayal of a religious movement freed from the shackles of clichéd understandings.

Jacob M. Blosser, Texas Woman's University

Waligore convincingly demonstrates that the current scholarship's definition and understanding of deism is mistaken, at least as applied to a strong majority of historical figures commonly assumed to be deists. Most deists arguably were Providential. That is, their deity was "warm," not "cold," responding to prayer and performing miracles in a way we have been told such a God does not do. This book thus properly revises the record and is must reading for those seriously interested in the differences between deism and other theological systems.

Jonathan W. Rowe, Mercer County Community College