 Two books exploring Washington's religious beliefs—"Realistic Visionary" by Peter Henriques, and "Faith and the Presidency" by Gary Scott Smith—both categorize Washington as a "theistic rationalist" which is described as a hybrid belief system somewhere between strict deism and orthodox Christianity, with rationalism as the predominant element.The term itself is not known to have been in use during Washington's lifetime.The Catholic historian and philosopher Michael Novak maintains that Washington could not have been strictly a Deist, but was a Christian