The First Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious Freedom, Expanded and UpdatedGeorgetown University Press, 07.03.2003 - 296 Seiten At a time when the concept of religion-based politics has taken on new and sometimes ominous tones—even within the United States—it is not only right, but also urgently necessary that William Lee Miller revisit his profound exploration of the place of religious liberty and church and state in America. For this revised edition of The First Liberty, Miller has written a pointed new introduction, discussing how religious liberty has taken on deeper dimensions in a post-9/11 world. With new material on recent Supreme Court cases involving church-state relations and a new concluding chapter on America's religious and political landscape, this volume is an eloquent and thorough interpretation of how religious faith and political freedom have blended and fused to form part of our collective history-and most importantly, how each concept must respect the boundaries of the other. Though many claim the United States to be a "Christian Nation," Miller provides a fascinatingly vivid account of the philosophical skirmishes and political machinations that led to the "wall of separation" between church and state. That famous phrase is Jefferson's, though it does not appear in the Declaration of Independence nor in the Constitution. But Miller follows this seminal idea from three great standard-bearers of religious liberty: Jefferson, Madison, and Roger Williams. Jefferson, who wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the precursor of the First Amendment of the Constitution; James Madison, who was politically responsible for Virginia's acceptance of religious liberty and who, a few years later, helped draft the Bill of Rights; and the even earlier figure, the radical dissenter Roger Williams, who propounded the idea of religious freedom not as a rational secularist but out of a deeply held spiritual faith. Miller re-creates the fierce and vibrant debate among the founding fathers over the means of establishing public virtue in the absence of established religion—a debate that still reverberates in today's passionate arguments about civil rights, school prayer, abortion, Christmas crèches, conscientious objection during warfare—and demonstrates how the right to hold any religious belief has dynamically shaped American political life. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 50
... whole , the people of this country shared the view that this was not a war against any reli- gion . From our side , this was not going to be any holy war . But there is no getting around the definition of this unique histori- cal drama ...
... whole object of the present controversy , " Jefferson had written to a friend , with his charac- teristic moral sweep , " for should a bad government be instituted for us , in future it had been as well to have accepted at first the bad ...
... whole code must be reviewed , adapted to our republican form of government , and , now that we have no negatives of Councils , Governors , and Kings to restrain us from doing right , it should be corrected , in all its parts , with a ...
... Whole and between the House of Delegates and the Senate ( Vir- ginia's new upper house ) , and in the manner of legislatures everywhere , the outcome was a compromise . Dissenters were relieved of taxes for the established church , and ...
... whole of the social , legal , political , geographical arrangement , inseparable from it , vindicating it . The events of the mid - eighteenth century struck against the older Virginia of the Anglican gentry not just one blow but two ...
Inhalt
1 | |
The Vocation of James Madison | 69 |
This Conscience Is Found in All Mankind | 127 |
A Fixed Star in Our Constitutional Constellation | 187 |
Concluding Notes on Liberty Shaping a Culture | 233 |
Thomas Jefferson A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom 1777 | 255 |
James Madison Memorial and Remonstrance | 257 |
Acknowledgments and Sources | 265 |
Index | 271 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
The First Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious Freedom William Lee Miller Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2003 |