Lincoln's Religion
He never joined a church, quoted Scripture like a preacher, and left no creed. What Lincoln actually said about God — and what others said for him.
The documented record
Lincoln’s religious life is one of the most contested subjects in the literature, so this page works outward from what is certain:
He never joined a church. Not in Springfield, not in Washington. His wife attended (Presbyterian); he rented a pew and came occasionally. This is undisputed.
He used the Bible constantly — more than any other president. The Second Inaugural alone quotes or paraphrases Matthew 7:1 (“judge not, that ye be not judged”), Matthew 18:7 (“woe unto the world because of offenses”), and Psalm 19:9 (“the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether”). Whether this was faith, rhetoric, or both is the argument; the usage is the fact.
He wrote theology in private. The Meditation on the Divine Will (c. September 1862) — “In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong” — is in his hand, never meant for publication. It is the strongest evidence for a genuine, wrestling providentialism.
He wrote about God’s purposes to strangers. To the Quaker Eliza Gurney (September 4, 1864): “The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.” Verbatim, documented.
The reported-but-unwritten
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” This line — Lincoln’s most famous statement of personal prayer — comes from a newspaper interview account, not from his pen. It is widely considered authentic in substance (it matches everything else about his wartime state of mind), but it is reported, not verified. This site labels it accordingly.
The contested
- Herndon’s skeptic. William Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner, insisted Lincoln was essentially an unbeliever — a “skeptic,” in Herndon’s word — who kept religion for politics. Herndon had motives (he disliked the clergy’s post-assassination sanctification of Lincoln) and evidence (Lincoln’s youthful freethinking writings, including a lost manuscript against Christianity). Scholars divide on how much of the young skeptic survived in the president.
- The deathbed conversion stories. Various ministers claimed Lincoln embraced Christ late in life. None of the claims has contemporary corroboration; all date from after the assassination, when a Christian martyr was politically useful. This site treats them as unverified.
- James Smith’s influence. The Presbyterian minister James Smith of Springfield was close to the Lincolns, especially after Willie died; Lincoln reportedly found comfort in Smith’s book The Christian’s Defence. The friendship is documented; its theological effect on Lincoln is inferred, not proven.
The honest position
Lincoln’s religion, as far as evidence reaches: a providentialist who doubted human certainty about God’s will, who found in the Bible the language for national judgment, who prayed under unbearable pressure, and who never submitted to any church’s creed. Everything beyond that — saint or skeptic — is interpretation built on selection. The Second Inaugural is the closest thing to his confession of faith, and it confesses mostly mystery: “The Almighty has His own purposes.”
Source notes
- Documented texts: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vols. 5, 7, 8 (Meditation on the Divine Will; Gurney letter; Second Inaugural).
- The “driven to my knees” line: reported in a contemporary newspaper interview account; labeled here as reported, not verified.
- Herndon’s claims: William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, Herndon’s Lincoln (1889); the scholarly debate is surveyed in the bibliography in sources.md.
- Deathbed-conversion claims: no contemporary corroboration; this site follows the skeptical scholarly consensus.