Religious liberalism of America's 'founding fathers'

The Rev. Gary Kowalski, the author of books as diverse as Science and the Search for God and The Souls of Animals, turns now to the liberal views of America’s revolutionary leaders. He dedicates chapters to John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and George Washington. “Though the men who founded America questioned doctrines they considered doubtful,” he writes, “they each developed a spiritual stance that enabled them to live with zest and face death with dignity and courage.”

Kowalski is minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, Vt.