Benjamin Franklin was only fifteen years old when his first published work appeared in The New England Courant. He would go on to write for the next sixty-nine years of his life until he died in 1790 at the age of eighty-four. The evolution of Franklin’s writing is evident when comparing hi tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic humor found in many of his earlier works to the sincere and revealing tone of “As to Jesus of Nazareth.” Franklin began his life as a deist who rejected institutional religion. His sarcastic attitude toward formal ideologies gradually evolved to one of respect for religion, shown a month before his death in “As Jesus to Nazareth.” Franklin’s honest manner in which he affirms the existence of God and the potential value of institutional religion for didactic purposes reaches a much more personal level than his days as Silence Dogood. Franklin comes to understand the value of faith for people who consider themselves religious and he explicitly acknowledges the moral validity of the church. Franklin’s last statement regarding his religion is believed to be his most straight forward, seen in “As Jesus to Nazareth” when he writes,
“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble...."
It is interesting timing that Franklin chooses to confirm his respect of institutional religion when his death is a month away. When people are young there is never need felt for consideration of the after life and how one’s life on Earth could play a role when they are gone. Franklin is almost sensing his last days area upon him and wants to cover all his bases before he passes away. The writing style can be recognized as Franklin, but the attitude is one of honesty produced by the threat of an uncertain death. I guess it takes that kind of strange reality for Franklin to allow the audience to dive deeper into his religious perspective.
