JIMMY CARTER: THE EFFECT OF PERSONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ON HIS PRESIDENCY AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHRISTIAN REALISM OF REINHOLD NIEBUHR (GEORGIA)

Jimmy Carter was the first "born-again" Christian to occupy the White House. His presidency thus raised many questions concerning the relationship of his personal faith to the conduct of the affairs of state. This dissertation asserts that his personal faith did influence his actions as president. The central question of this study thus becomes: "How did Carter's personal religious beliefs affect the conduct of his presidency?";The study of these paradigmatic events reveals that Carter's Southern Baptist background was the determinant of his personal expression of faith, but his strict separationist stance on church-state matters led him to detach his personal piety from his political life. The means by which Carter brought together his religious principles and politics was, rather, the Niebuhrian system of Christian realism. Unfortunately, his attempt to insert an element of Christian realism into American public policies failed because he was an ineffective leader and president.;In summary, Carter's religious beliefs did affect his presidency both by providing a Weltanschauung from which he viewed the world and by furnishing the context for his Christian realist approach to the presidency. His effort to allow his religious beliefs to impinge upon his presidency failed because he was not the kind of leader who could rally the public to his policies and comprehensively carry these policies out to a realistic conclusion.;The dissertation begins with a review of Carter's family history and life before he became President. This background study offers insights into both the key events of his life and his personality and provides a springboard for an analysis of three aspects of his religious life: his Baptist heritage, his church-state position, and his Christian realist proclivities. The analysis of the three aspects of Carter's religious life serves as an interpretive framework from which three paradigmatic events of Carter's presidency are evaluated: the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David peace process, and his human rights policy.