The Soul of an American President by Alan Sears and Craig Osten with Ryan Cole

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The Soul Of An American President

The Untold Story of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Faith

Was Dwight's faith in God real or was it political? That is the question this book works to answer. Since I knew basically nothing about Dwight Eisenhower, this book was interesting to me in just hearing about his life and who he was.

Some of his previous biographers wanted to say that his faith was only political because he didn't get vocal about his faith until he was the President.  Dwight was the only President to be baptized while President. He also joined a church for the first time after he was President. He chose to wait until after he was President because he didn't want people to think that it was for political purposes.

One of the most fascinating things I learned in this book was that Dwight or Ike as he was called, was born into an Anabaptist family. His grandpa was a minister in the River Brethren church in Abilene, Kansas. Dwight's own parents left the River Brethren and his mom became a pretty staunch Jehovah's Witness, though it wasn't called that yet when she joined. She was very saddened by the choice Dwight made to make the military his career since she was a strong pacifist. I just found that information very intriguing being Anabaptist myself.

I enjoyed the book a lot. I found it refreshing to read about a President with a strong faith base who spoke out boldly for strong religious values. He had a tough job to do becoming President during the Cold War and also during the start of the Civil Rights movement. While he was a strong supporter of equal rights for all, he also recognized that change wasn't going to happen successfully as a result of laws being put into place. More was needed.  He was a faithful church attender wherever he went as long as he was physically able.

The only negative critique I would have of the book is the authors could almost be seen as having tried too hard to persuade. You know how when you feel passionate about something and you push your point so hard, it starts to feel like maybe there's a cover-up or some untruth here, that could about happen with this book. I don't feel like there is any kind of cover-up. I think the authors sincerely wanted to know the answer and went digging to find all the information they could about Dwight and his faith and then laid the information out accurately in the pages of this book. Just something I noticed as I thought about the book.

I received this book from Baker Books and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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