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Jefferson was a regular church goer and a lifelong Christian. His unique theology was his own creation and combined elements of deism and Unitarianism. "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know," he wrote to a friend.<ref>"[https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs Jefferson's Religious Beliefs]," ''Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia''</ref>

Jefferson was a regular church goer and a lifelong Christian. His unique theology was his own creation and combined elements of deism and Unitarianism. "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know," he wrote to a friend.<ref>"[https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-religious-beliefs Jefferson's Religious Beliefs]," ''Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia''</ref>

Jefferson was raised in the [[Church of England]] at a time when it was the established church in Virginia and never formally left the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]], and attended church regularly near the end of his life.  Despite that, at least one historian claims that Jefferson was merely a [[deism|deist]].<ref>David L. Holmes, ''The Faiths of the Founding Fathers''.</ref>  Conservative scholars such as [[David Barton]] point out how Jefferson was a pious orthodox Christian.<ref>Barton, David. ''The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson'' (2012, Thomas Nelson)</ref> Liberal publishing houses, such as Oxford University Press, University of Virginia Press, and Yale University Press, typically deny or downplay Jefferson's Christian beliefs.   

Jefferson was raised in the [[Church of England]] at a time when it was the established church in Virginia and never formally left the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]], and attended church regularly near the end of his life.  Despite that, at least one historian claims that Jefferson was merely a [[deism|deist]].<ref>David L. Holmes, ''The Faiths of the Founding Fathers''.</ref>  Conservative scholars such as [[David Barton]] point out how Jefferson was a [[Piety|pious]] orthodox Christian.<ref>Barton, David. ''The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson'' (2012, Thomas Nelson)</ref> Liberal publishing houses, such as Oxford University Press, University of Virginia Press, and Yale University Press, typically deny or downplay Jefferson's Christian beliefs.   

Jefferson did not believe the words of Jesus or any other part of the Bible to be divinely inspired,<ref>[http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl261.htm Letter to William Short, August 4, 1820]</ref> but he considered Jesus a great moral teacher who created "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."<ref>http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/jefferson_m_03.html</ref> Believing that the doctrines of the historical Jesus had been greatly corrupted by ignorant and superstitious "pseudo-followers," Jefferson used a razor and a paste to assemble passages from the Synoptic Gospels into a new book commonly called the ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', omitting references to divinity and miracles. However, he did not necessarily agree with everything that remained, writing, "I read [Jesus's doctrines] as I do those of other antient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent."<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(ws03101)) Letter to William Short, April 13, 1820]</ref>

Jefferson did not believe the words of Jesus or any other part of the Bible to be divinely inspired,<ref>[http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl261.htm Letter to William Short, August 4, 1820]</ref> but he considered Jesus a great moral teacher who created "the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."<ref>http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/jefferson_m_03.html</ref> Believing that the doctrines of the historical Jesus had been greatly corrupted by ignorant and superstitious "pseudo-followers," Jefferson used a razor and a paste to assemble passages from the Synoptic Gospels into a new book commonly called the ''[[Jefferson Bible]]'', omitting references to divinity and miracles. However, he did not necessarily agree with everything that remained, writing, "I read [Jesus's doctrines] as I do those of other antient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent."<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(ws03101)) Letter to William Short, April 13, 1820]</ref>