Jefferson's CommonPlace Book

Thomas Jefferson: Religion and History

In Thomas Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book, one of the main aspects of his writing involves the role of religion and how it shapes the beliefs and intellectual views of society as a whole. Jefferson incorporates various authors, religious figures, and historical context regarding how these concepts affect the laws and beliefs of those influenced. Jefferson also criticizes these concepts and asserts his own opinions to better explain them and how they have fully influenced views over time. He expands on how the basis of knowledge and all we know in this world is based off some form of a higher power. As history shows, most of these beliefs are religious ones and reveal a form of learning or set laws on which to follow. Jefferson includes his opinion on how, “we cannot read the bible without being convinced that no law ever operated so weak and so uncertain an effect as the law of Moses did” (50). Jefferson uses the historical context of the story of Moses to represent the way individuals follow a common belief. He explains how Moses did “not write to instruct the Israelites in natural philosophy, but to imprint strongly on their minds a belief of one god, the creator of all things” (55). This relates back to the idea of the belief of God or “higher power” being the basis of which to follow and creates a sense of purpose for many. Jefferson uses many examples and touches upon Christianity as well to assert these ideas.

Works Cited

Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book . Edited by Douglas L

Wilson , The Papers of Thomas Jefferson ed., Princeton University Press .