Quiet Fire: The Spiritual Life of Abraham Lincoln

The name of the book is on purpose. "Fire" is the universal spiritual symbol for light and truth. Lincoln was on fire for that. "Quiet" is the counter-cultural grace to be open, knowable, and a source of charity and peace. Even as a War President. Lincoln is spiritual because he is humble. The book takes you to the nearly scriptural way he understood the Declaration of Independence. It points to the deep and rare grounding he had-way out there on the frontier-in Rational Enlightenment. The empirical world of Jefferson was his world. But the yonder world of Romantic poets, like Bryon and Burns, opened his heart to love and simple virtue. He had a sweet mother Nancy, and his wise stepmother Sarah. The spiritual life of Lincoln is at home with mother love and he applied that to the national tragedy. The book also reveals how language, and God language, was the expression of his spiritual life. He was a poet and he reveals Biblical guidance and Christian love with his words. He was psychologically humble. The book opens the reader to how he shows the value of that virtue for democracy.