Wednesday, Sept. 10 | 7:30 pm | Parish Lounge, Zoom -
All are welcome to join this September 10 discussion of And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham.
In this work, Meacham provides a revealing portrait of the “whole” man and the friends and foes around Abraham Lincoln before and during the greatest existential threat this country had ever faced. It is replete with personal touches including his personal and political struggle to end slavery through the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The great Black leader Frederick Douglas said that only with this document was the Civil War “invested with sanctity.” Yet within a year, Lincoln was subjected to extraordinary pressure from the leaders of his own party to retract that proclamation to prevent what seemed to be almost certain defeat in the Presidential election of 1864. He refused, and he won.
As a respected religious thinker and writer and the first Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral, Meacham is often at his best when he tries to analyze Lincoln’s spiritual roots, which accepted a Divine Presence that guided him even though he ever embraced any particular church dogma.
At the end of this meeting, we will select books for our next two to three meetings. Please bring your ideas and recommendations.
As with all our meetings, this is open both to men and women.
- Earle O'Donnell
For questions or to get the Zoom link...
Complete this form to connect with parishioner Earle O'Donnell.