Was Ben Franklin an Atheist, a Deist, or a Christian? The Story of Franklin's Faith
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Benjamin Franklin was a printer, an inventor, a politician, and an all-around Renaissance man—but did he believe in God? Dr. D.G. Hart, author of Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant, alongside Dr. Thomas Kidd, courtesy of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, tells the story of this remarkably complicated man—and why he may have also invented the most common form of religiosity in the Western world today.
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| 0:00.0 | And we return to our American stories. Up next, a story on the personal life of one of our most |
| 0:16.1 | important founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. A true Renaissance man, Franklin was an inventor, a politician, |
| 0:23.5 | a publisher, and an all-around important thinker who shaped and continues to shape American |
| 0:29.3 | thought and life. But what about his faith? Here to tell the story of Ben Franklin's faith life |
| 0:35.2 | is Dr. Darrell Hart, an associate professor of history at Hillsdale College, and the author of Ben Franklin's faith life is Dr. Darrell Hart, an associate professor of history |
| 0:38.9 | at Hillsdale College and the author of Benjamin Franklin, Cultural Protestant. You'll also hear |
| 0:45.1 | from Dr. Thomas Kidd, giving a lecture on the subject for the Centennial Institute at Colorado |
| 0:50.5 | Christian University back in 2019. Let's start with Dr. Daryl Hart. |
| 0:57.1 | I don't think he was religious in a conventional sense. |
| 1:05.5 | For most of his life, Franklin had traditional Christian inquirers, especially family and friends, who asked him about the state of his beliefs and the state of his soul. |
| 1:15.1 | In the last few weeks of Franklin's life, though, one more inquirer came on the stage. |
| 1:21.0 | Franklin had known Yale College President Ezra Stiles, ever since Yale granted Franklin an honorary master's degree in 1753 in honor |
| 1:29.8 | Franklin's electrical experiments. Stiles realized that Franklin was near death. Quote, |
| 1:36.9 | you have merited and received all the honors of the Republic of letters and are going to a world where all sublinary glories |
| 1:46.2 | will be lost in the glories of immortality," Stiles wrote him. |
| 1:50.5 | I wish to know the opinion of my venerable friend concerning Jesus of Nazareth. |
| 1:56.8 | Reverend and dear sir, you desire to know something of my religion. |
| 2:02.2 | Here is my creed. |
| 2:08.9 | I believe in one God, creator of the universe, that he governs it by his providence, |
| 2:13.8 | and that he ought to be worshipped, that the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children, that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated |
| 2:19.4 | with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental |
| 2:26.1 | principles of all sound religion. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly |
... |
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