In the debate over Washington's religion, Mary Thompson urges us to avoid the false choice of classifying him as a deist or as a devout Christian, suggesting that Washington's writings and behavior correspond to that of an Anglican/Episcopalian of a latitudinarian bent. A research historian at the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, Thompson brings to this task considerable familiarity with Washington's family, his personal connections, and the Washington family's papers.

He was no evangelical or pietist, but Thompson cautions against reading deistic tendencies into Washington's silences on religion. In conversation, he avoided talking about himself at all, not just about his religious views. And his most personal correspondence—in which his views on religion might have appeared if anywhere—did not survive. We are left to interpret scraps of evidence from the man himself. If Thompson on occasion falls into the same trap of over-interpreting some of these scraps, on the whole her treatment is evenhanded and her claims appropriately tentative.

By placing Washington's life in the context of other family members about whose religious lives we know more, she argues skillfully and persuasively that Washington was “raised within the tolerant, liberal wing of the Anglican Church” (185). While conceding that even some of those who did know him, such as his pastor during his presidency, did not claim to know his religious beliefs, she also notes the many relatives and associates who described his ongoing religious behavior: his continued association with the Church after the war, despite his lapsed attendance at communion; his participation in its governance and its financial support; his promotion of religious freedom as the first president.

No one interested in Washington's religion should overlook this well-written and well-researched monograph.