Topic: Religion

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Jefferson to John Adams

In this letter, Jefferson shared with John Adams his idea to extract passages from the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—to produce his own Bible. He called the resulting work...
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Jefferson to Richard Price

Jefferson wrote this letter shortly after his return home after spending nearly five years in Europe . He observed that the recent adoption of the new federal Constitution—which he approved—was...
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Jefferson to Richard Rush

Thomas Jefferson believed that religion was an entirely private matter, as he explained in this letter to Richard Rush. Jefferson had shared some thoughts on religion with Rush’s father, who...
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Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists

When he became president in 1801, Jefferson received a congratulatory note — along with a giant cheese — from Connecticut’s Danbury Baptist Association. In this response, he affirmed his support...
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Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists (Audio)

This is a dramatic reading of a letter Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association, who sent him a congratulatory note–along with a giant cheese–when he became president in 1801....
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Jefferson to the Members of the Baltimore Baptist Association

In this letter, Jefferson claimed that political and religious tyranny had gone hand-in-hand in British colonial America. As president, he kept the United States out of the ongoing war in...
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Jefferson to Thomas B. Parker

In this letter, Thomas Jefferson revealed some of his key religious views. He believed in God, distrusted rigid orthodoxies, and favored free debate on religious issues. Jefferson especially disliked theologians...
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Jesus in the Praetorium

Jefferson bought this painting, Jesus in the Praetorium, when he was a diplomat in France in the 1780s. He displayed it, along with the many others he acquired in Europe,...
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John Adams to Jefferson

In this letter to Thomas Jefferson written in 1815, John Adams reflects on the history of the American Revolution. Adams states that the revolution would not have occurred without important...
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Koran

Thomas Jefferson had this volume, an English translation of the Koran, in his library at Monticello. In his catalog of books, Jefferson put the Koran in the section on “Religion,”...