The

The On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln stood on the east side of the U.S. Capitol and delivered his second inaugural address.

In that celebrated speech, Lincoln surprised listeners

by talking about the ongoing civil war in religious terms as a punishment from God for the

sin of slavery. He talked about the mystery of God's will and how both sides, the Union and the

Confederates, read the same Bible and prayed

to the same God. Those who knew Lincoln personally might have even been more surprise,

because as a young man, he was a skeptic who rejected the fundamental tenets of Christianity.

What led Lincoln to deliver such an intensely religious speech? What were

Lincoln's religious views? How did they affect his leadership as America's 16th president?

Josh Zyte's has written a new book to answer these questions. It's titled Lincoln's God,

How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation. Josh is the author of the best-selling titled Lincoln's God, How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation.

Josh is the author of the bestselling book, Lincoln's Boys, and he's written several books on history.

So, Josh, thanks for being on our podcast.

Thank you for letting me join you to talk about Abraham Lincoln, religion, and all things civil war.

So no president, perhaps, has been written about more than Lincoln.

So what led you to write this book?

And what did you think that you could add to the large scholarship on our 16th president?

I wanted to write a book that looked at religion and civil war era culture because I think

an underappreciated component and building block

of American politics in the 1850s and 1860s is religion. America was an intensely religious

country in this era. Religion in this era was predominantly Christian and predominantly Protestant.

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