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COMMENTARY
Lovett headmaster examines
Abraham Lincoln’s faith
Billy Peebles gets excited when he
talks about Abraham Lincoln.
Peebles’ eyes light as he warms to
his subject. He speaks quickly, jumping
from topic to topic, enthusiasm build
ing, as he recounts events from Lincoln’s
life or discusses the 16th president’s
writings.
“It’s just a great American story,” Pee
bles said one recent afternoon as he sat
in his office at The Lovett School, where
he has been headmaster for a decade.
“[Lincoln] becomes a respected law
yer. He’s sought out all over the Mid
west. But his great love is not the law.
It’s politics. The guy is a workhorse. He
wrote all of his own speeches. He does
all his own research. He did all his own
edits.”
And, of course, Lincoln changed
American history. He led the northern
states to victory in the Civil War, a con
flict that — partly through his words — re
made the country and the way we think
about it.
The war also changed Lincoln. The
ways he changed are part of what inter
ests Peebles.
Peebles studies history. In his first
years as a teacher, he said, he started
reading Lincoln’s writings. The young
historian grew fascinated with the dead
president’s thoughts about God and re
ligion. “He had a very nuanced faith,”
Peebles said.
On May 28, Peebles will present a
public talk on Lincoln’s faith. His lec
ture, titled “Abraham Lincoln: How His
Faith Shaped Policy,” is scheduled to
begin at 7 p.m. at the Atlanta History
Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, and
is sponsored by the center and the Buck-
head Heritage Society. Admission is free
for members of either group, but tickets
cost $ 15 for others.
This year has been sort of a “Year of
Lincoln” in popular culture. Daniel Day-
Lewis won an Oscar portraying Lin
coln in a blockbuster movie. (“I thought
it was great,” Peebles said of the mov
ie.) The Emancipation Proclamation
and the Get
tysburg Ad
dress, two
of Lincoln’s
best-known
statements of
public poli
cy, reach their
150th anni
versaries this
year, helping
renew inter
est in writings
and speech
es by the
self-taught
frontier lawyer who became a focus of
national debate over slavery.
“He was such an unusual character,”
Peebles said. “He taught himself Euclid
ean geometry! He taught him
self how to survey.”
And as Peebles sees it, Lin
coln thought hard and deep
about religion. Faith was im
portant to him. “I think it
helped to shape his character,”
Peebles said. “I think it helped
to shape some pretty signifi
cant policies.”
Growing up on the edge
of the country, Lincoln “was
steeped in the hard-shell, pre
destination, Baptist tradition,”
Peebles said. “But he really re
belled against that. By the
standards of his day, he was
pretty eclectic.”
The war seems to have chal
lenged Lincoln’s faith, Peebles
said. At times, Lincoln appears
to have been a skeptic, Peebles
said, but, just weeks before the president’s
assassination, he delivers his second inau
gural address, which contains more than a
half-dozen direct references to God.
In times of both war and peace, many
politicians come to believe that God is
on their side. Lincoln “never fell victim
to that kind of self-righteousness,” Pee
bles said.
Instead, he articulated a belief that
the Civil War “was so horrific because
God was holding the whole country ac
countable for slavery,” Peebles said. Even
the winners would lose.
As he discussed Lincoln’s thoughts,
Peebles turned to the bookshelves lin
ing a wall in his office at Lovett. They
were filled with volumes on Lincoln and
on the Civil War. He pulled down one
book he had found particularly useful.
The title: “Abraham Lincoln, from Skep
tic to Prophet.” “That’s a great descrip
tion, right there,” Peebles said.
In Lincoln’s writings, Peebles found a
man “wrestling with himself” over religion
and moral thinking as he tried to make
sense of the horrors he saw all around him
as the nation fought its Civil War.
“There’s a lot of self-reflection,” Pee
bles said. “That’s unusual for anybody,
much less a president.”
JOE EARLE
Billy Peebles, headmaster of The
Lovett School, studies history, and is
fascinated by Abraham Lincoln.
AROUND
TOWN
JOE EARLE
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