Throughout both the Republican and Democratic primaries and the ongoing presidential campaign of 2008, the religious beliefs and associations of presidential candidates have been at the forefront of public discussion. But the importance that Americans place on the faith of their leaders is nothing new in American history, as this issue of Christian History & Biography shows.
What follows is not a comprehensive survey of the religious beliefs of America's presidents. It is not a series of spiritual biographies of the most pious presidents. The men included here are not necessarily the "most Christian" occupants of the White House, nor do we necessarily endorse their beliefs or policies. What we have done, in consultation with historians Gary Scott Smith and Mark Noll, is to pick seven representative moments in American history—speeches, foreign policy decisions, and in one case an election that sparked a famous metaphor—when the religious perspective of the president intersected ...
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