Thank you. I have long argued that Deism as defined by the people to whom we often ascribe it can not mean what we are taught it means, particularly in school today.
Can you provide me with more on this (will look more on own later, of course)? Thank you.
The essay "A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm" can be found in the works of Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper), specifically in Charactersticks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (ISBN 0521578922).
While it is undoubtably clear in his writings that he embraced Christianity ("entire submission to the truly Christian and catholic doctrines of our holy church"), his intellect demanded that he abandon the "melancholy way of treating religion is that which, according to my apprehension, renders it so tragical". Most of the founders shared this "Deist" (not in the "modern" sense, of course) view of Christianity, in that faith was something to be incorporated into a life in the pursuit of happiness via intellectual reason, not something that denied nor substituted for such happiness or reason.