Freedom of Worship is the second of a series of four oil paintings by Norman Rockwell entitled Four Freedoms. The works were inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union Address delivered to the 77th United States Congress on January 6, 1941, known as Four Freedoms.[1] Of the Four Freedoms, the only two described in the United States Constitution are freedom of speech and freedom of religion.[2] The Four Freedoms' theme was later incorporated into the Allies' World War II policy statement, the Atlantic Charter,[3][4] and became part of the charter of the United Nations.[1] The series of paintings ran on four consecutive weeks in The Saturday Evening Post, accompanied by essays from noted writers: Freedom of Speech (February 20), Freedom of Worship (February 27), Freedom from Want (March 6) and Freedom from Fear (March 13).[5] For the essay accompanying Freedom of Worship, Post editor Ben Hibbs chose Durant, who was a best-selling author at the peak of his fame. At the time, Durant was in the midst of working on his ten-volume The Story of Civilization, coauthored with his wife, Ariel Durant. Will Durant also lectured on history and philosophy.[6] Eventually, the series of paintings became widely distributed in poster form and became instrumental in the U.S. Government War Bond Drive.[7][8][9]
