Gary Scott Smith is professor of history emeritus at Grove City College where he taught from 1978 to 2017. Smith was named the 2001 Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents and Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush.
"Winston Churchill 'was not a deist, an agnostic, an atheist, or a
Christian.' What, then, was he? Gary Scott Smith, an authority on
religion and American presidents, here turns his discerning eye to
the role that faith played in the life, work, and character of one
of the most monumental political figures of the twentieth century.
The result is a model of critical investigation and nuanced
judgment. Religion is too important to overlook in political
analysis--and too easy to exaggerate or get wrong. This volume
shows how to do it right."
-- James D. Bratt
coauthor of A Christian and a Democrat: A Religious Biography of
Franklin D. Roosevelt "Gary Scott Smith, with detail and good
research, tackles the complicated relationship between religion and
politics in Churchill's thought. We learn that Churchill was a
believer in a faith--which was at the heart of his appeal in the
Second World War--but not necessarily a practitioner. His book
confirms Churchill's quip that he accumulated in youth 'so fine a
surplus in the Bank of Observance that I have been drawing
confidently upon it ever since, [never making] enquiries about the
state of my account. It might well even be that I should find an
overdraft.'"
-- Richard M. Langworth
senior fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project "So much of
Winston Churchill's life and character defies simple
classification, and his religion is no exception. In this
meticulously researched and authoritative study, Gary Scott Smith
goes beyond the public rhetoric--steeped, as he shows, in biblical
and liturgical allusions--to discern the elements of the private
faith which underpinned much of Churchill's life. He argues
persuasively that while Churchill was neither the unbeliever nor
the orthodox Christian that different writers have claimed, his
faith, although in many ways an enigma, was nonetheless real and
important. It is indeed, as the author says, a 'complex, colorful,
and compelling' story."
-- Andrew Connell
Cardiff University The Living Church
"This is all we ever look for in a biography: the truth in all its
strange appearances. Smith's book helps us know Churchill better
than ever, and we do not love the great man any less for the
revelations." Catholic World Report
"Kudos to Gary Scott Smith for giving us something far more
measured and thoughtful about the person of Winston Churchill than
the narrow caricature being framed by today's cultural
revolutionaries." Law & Liberty
"Gary Scott Smith should be commended for making available all the
crucial evidence regarding Churchill, religion, and the life of the
soul. I think he is right that the great Churchill was, in the end,
neither an atheist nor an orthodox Christian." CHOICE
"A detailed chronological treatment of expressions of religious
belief or sentiment from Churchill's school days to the end of his
momentous life. . . . Recommended." The Christian Librarian
"This book makes a significant contribution to the scholarly
literature on Churchill's life and religious views, yet it is
written in a way that is accessible to the general reader as well.
The book would make be an excellent addition to the collections of
libraries not only of faith-based institutions, but also of other
academic libraries and public libraries as well." AudioFile
"Richard Turner does a splendid narration of this well-written and
meticulously researched biography of Winston Churchill." Journal of
Church and State
"[Duty and Destiny is] a helpful attempt to contextualize
Churchill's beliefs within the attitudes to religion that prevailed
within British society during his lifetime. . . . This book raises
important questions about religious life in nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Britain and stimulates interesting reflection."
Fides et Historia
"In making a convincing case for viewing Churchill as a Christian
statesman, albeit one of an unorthodox kind, Smith has rendered a
valuable service to scholarship and a useful corrective to wholly
secular readings of his life and career."
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