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The Age of Revelation; Or, the Age of Reason Shewn to Be an Age of Infidelity
While Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" gets a great deal of press, almost no one mentions Elias Boudinot's book-length response.
Paine is considered to be an American Founding Father, and yet, unlike Paine, Boudinot actually served in a civil capacity in the United States. Paine's only elective office was in France. Boudinot is a true American Founding Father. Paine had no role in the founding conventions of America and their documents. A fact pointed out by Boudinot, and felt that the only reason Paine got the attention he received was due, mainly, from his earlier work "Common Sense."
Boudinot waited some time before deciding to respond to Paine's Age of Reason. His measured rejoinder to Paine's work is contemplative and, contrary to Paine's treatise, a work of sound scholarship. A great deal of thought and humility went into the well-argued reply.
With the publication and dissemination of Paine's work, Boudinot feared it would corrupt the mindes of young men and women of his time and originally wrote it as a pamphlet to his daughter. "I confess,' he wrote, 'that I was much mortified to find, the whole force of this vain man's genius and art, pointed at the youth of America, and her unlearned citizens. Even though there are tens of thousands of churches and tens of millions of Christians, it seems that the skepticism of Paine has the upper hand. The prevalence of skepticism is more the inaction of Christians than the accomplishment of skeptics."
Boudinot knew that he could no longer wait for someone else to respond.
It was Boudinot's opinion that if "The Age of Reason" had not been written by the popular author of "Common Sense," the 1776 pamphlet that argued that America was justified in breaking away from the British monarchy, the book would not have been given much of a hearing.
Boudinot shows that Paine did not uncover anything new under the sun.
Boudinot quotes sources from nearly every field of knowledge. He seems to be acquainted with several languages, including Latin and Greek. He has a broad knowledge of the Bible and a keen sense of logical analysis. His work shows what an educated layman can do when spurred on by the need to answer a once-respected writer who abused his popularity to rail against a religious system that he either did not fully understand or had no wish to understand.
Boudinot understood that good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow. Boudinot was not an academic, and yet The Age of Revelation surpasses most of what is passed off today as Christian scholarship.
About the Author: Elias Boudinot (1740 - 1821), was a delegate and representative from New Jersey to the Continental Congress. He was admitted to the bar in 1760. He served in the Continental Congress even holding the office of the President from 1782 to 1783. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton College where he founded the natural history department.
-Three Congressional terms from New Jersey(1789-1795).
-Director of the United States Mint (1795-1805)
-Committee to design the Great Seal of the United States.
-Founder of the American Bible Society in 1816.
Paine is considered to be an American Founding Father, and yet, unlike Paine, Boudinot actually served in a civil capacity in the United States. Paine's only elective office was in France. Boudinot is a true American Founding Father. Paine had no role in the founding conventions of America and their documents. A fact pointed out by Boudinot, and felt that the only reason Paine got the attention he received was due, mainly, from his earlier work "Common Sense."
Boudinot waited some time before deciding to respond to Paine's Age of Reason. His measured rejoinder to Paine's work is contemplative and, contrary to Paine's treatise, a work of sound scholarship. A great deal of thought and humility went into the well-argued reply.
With the publication and dissemination of Paine's work, Boudinot feared it would corrupt the mindes of young men and women of his time and originally wrote it as a pamphlet to his daughter. "I confess,' he wrote, 'that I was much mortified to find, the whole force of this vain man's genius and art, pointed at the youth of America, and her unlearned citizens. Even though there are tens of thousands of churches and tens of millions of Christians, it seems that the skepticism of Paine has the upper hand. The prevalence of skepticism is more the inaction of Christians than the accomplishment of skeptics."
Boudinot knew that he could no longer wait for someone else to respond.
It was Boudinot's opinion that if "The Age of Reason" had not been written by the popular author of "Common Sense," the 1776 pamphlet that argued that America was justified in breaking away from the British monarchy, the book would not have been given much of a hearing.
Boudinot shows that Paine did not uncover anything new under the sun.
Boudinot quotes sources from nearly every field of knowledge. He seems to be acquainted with several languages, including Latin and Greek. He has a broad knowledge of the Bible and a keen sense of logical analysis. His work shows what an educated layman can do when spurred on by the need to answer a once-respected writer who abused his popularity to rail against a religious system that he either did not fully understand or had no wish to understand.
Boudinot understood that good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow. Boudinot was not an academic, and yet The Age of Revelation surpasses most of what is passed off today as Christian scholarship.
About the Author: Elias Boudinot (1740 - 1821), was a delegate and representative from New Jersey to the Continental Congress. He was admitted to the bar in 1760. He served in the Continental Congress even holding the office of the President from 1782 to 1783. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton College where he founded the natural history department.
-Three Congressional terms from New Jersey(1789-1795).
-Director of the United States Mint (1795-1805)
-Committee to design the Great Seal of the United States.
-Founder of the American Bible Society in 1816.
285 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1801
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About the author
Elias Boudinot
45 books3 followersElias Boudinot was a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a U.S. Congressman for New Jersey. He also served as President of the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1783 and Director of the United States Mint from 1795 until 1805.
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March 25, 2011
Boudinot wrote this response to Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" disappointed that no one else had done so. Initially, it was written to his daughter to bolster her Christian faith, but he later expanded it for a general readership. For a late seventeenth / early nineteenth century work it is pretty impressive for the amount of research into the history of the Bible and Christianity that Boudinot was able to perform on this side of the pond. While many of his arguments have since been weakened by modern scholarship, many more still form a solid and convincing argument for his cause. Boudinot was an earnest and pious man who held many positions of influence in the early U.S. government. 'Tis a pity that in this benighted era of hope and change no such works issue forth from our political leaders.
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