McClay on Lincoln

Several years ago I wrote an essay for the literary and public affairs magazine, The Cresset, on my experience teaching the Civil War. (The article, as far as I can tell, is not on-line. Drop me a note with your address and I will be happy to send you off a hard copy). The piece reflected on the way my Christian students responded to Abraham Lincoln. Some of them praised Lincoln for freeing the slaves and the preserving the Union. But others offered compelling critiques of his commitment to Total War. Most of my students rejected the racist and slave culture of the American South, but they wondered whether Lincoln’s celebration and promotion of Union at all costs may have led to the loss of local community, tradition, and folkways. Some of my Anabaptist students could not reconcile Lincoln’s love of Nation with their understanding of a universal Kingdom of God that transcends national identity. (As a college with Anabaptist roots, Messiah does not fly an American flag on campus).

I thought about these things today reading Wilfred McClay’s reflections on Lincoln in the January/February 2009 issue of Humanities. McClay humanizes Lincoln for us and offers some helpful reflections on the Lincoln we have come to revere and the Lincoln who was a product of mid-19th century American history.