Introduction: A Different Kind of Protestant

Abstract

The Introduction addresses the question that has long absorbed the biographers of Benjamin Franklin: how to regard his writing about religion as well as many of his endeavors that were friendly to religion. The question of Franklin’s spirituality is even more pressing thanks to his Puritan upbringing in Boston and his marriage to an active Anglican. This chapter lays out the debates and suggests an alternative to the interpretations that historians have offered. Roman Catholics and Jews refer to non-observant members of their groups as “cultural”—people who observe parts of the faith and live with an awareness of it but do not join the church or synagogue. Subsequent chapters attempt to do this for Franklin as a cultural Protestant.