Freedom of Religion in America: Historical Roots, Philosophical Concepts, Contemporary Problems

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Publisher : Transaction Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9780878559251
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (592 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom of Religion in America: Historical Roots, Philosophical Concepts, Contemporary Problems by : Henry B. Clark

Download or read book Freedom of Religion in America: Historical Roots, Philosophical Concepts, Contemporary Problems written by Henry B. Clark and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1982-01-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting perceptive essays on various aspects of religious liberty, the contributors to this volume provide an overview of the history and the issues surrounding religion in America.

Freedom of Religion in America

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 143 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Freedom of Religion in America by :

Download or read book Freedom of Religion in America written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Religious Liberty in America

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Liberty in America by : Bruce T. Murray

Download or read book Religious Liberty in America written by Bruce T. Murray and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Publisher: In recent years a series of highly publicized controversies has focused attention on what are arguably the sixteen most important words in the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The ongoing court battles over the inclusion of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, the now annual cultural quarrel over "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays," and the political promotion of "faith-based initiatives" to address social problems-all reflect competing views of the meaning of the religious liberty clauses of the First Amendment. Such disputes, as Bruce T. Murray shows, are nothing new. For more than two hundred years Americans have disagreed about the proper role of religion in public life and where to draw the line between church and state. In this book, he reexamines these debates and distills the volumes of commentary and case law they have generated. He analyzes not only the changing contours of religious freedom but also the phenomenon of American civil religion, grounded in the notion that the nation's purpose is sanctified by a higher authority-an idea that can be traced back to the earliest New England colonists and remains deeply ingrained in the American psyche. Throughout the book, Murray connects past and present, tracing the historical roots of contemporary controversies. He considers why it is that a country founded on the separation of church and state remains singularly religious among nations, and concludes by showing how the Supreme Court's thinking about the religious liberty clauses has evolved since the late eighteenth century.

Religious Freedom in America

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Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 0806149906
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (61 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Freedom in America by : Allen D. Hertzke

Download or read book Religious Freedom in America written by Allen D. Hertzke and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-01-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is foundational to the U.S. democratic experiment. But what freedom of conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the Constitution—these are matters for heated debate. At a moment when such questions loom ever larger in the nation’s contentious politics and fraught policy-making process, this timely book offers invaluable historical, empirical, philosophical, and analytical insight into the American constitutional heritage of religious liberty. As the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume attest, understanding religious freedom demands taking multiple perspectives. The historians guide us through the legacy of religious freedom, from the nation’s founding and the rise of public education, through the waves of immigration that added successive layers of diversity to American society. The social scientists discuss the swift, striking effects of judicial decision making and the battles over free exercise in a complex, bureaucratic society. Advocates remind us of the tensions abiding in schools and other familiar institutions, and of the major role minorities play in shaping free exercise under our constitutional regime. And the jurists emphasize that this is a messy area of constitutional law. Their work brings out the conflicts inherent in interpreting the First Amendment—tensions between free exercise and disestablishment, between the legislative and judicial branches of government, and along the complex and ever-shifting boundaries of religion, state, and society. What emerges most clearly from these essays is how central religious liberty is to America’s civic fabric—and how, under increasing pressure from both religious and secular forces, this First Amendment freedom demands our full attention and understanding.

The Myth of American Religious Freedom

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199793112
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myth of American Religious Freedom by : David Sehat

Download or read book The Myth of American Religious Freedom written by David Sehat and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-14 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the battles over religion and politics in America, both liberals and conservatives often appeal to history. Liberals claim that the Founders separated church and state. But for much of American history, David Sehat writes, Protestant Christianity was intimately intertwined with the state. Yet the past was not the Christian utopia that conservatives imagine either. Instead, a Protestant moral establishment prevailed, using government power to punish free thinkers and religious dissidents. In The Myth of American Religious Freedom, Sehat provides an eye-opening history of religion in public life, overturning our most cherished myths. Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, which had limited authority. The Protestant moral establishment ruled on the state level. Using moral laws to uphold religious power, religious partisans enforced a moral and religious orthodoxy against Catholics, Jews, Mormons, agnostics, and others. Not until 1940 did the U.S. Supreme Court extend the First Amendment to the states. As the Supreme Court began to dismantle the connections between religion and government, Sehat argues, religious conservatives mobilized to maintain their power and began the culture wars of the last fifty years. To trace the rise and fall of this Protestant establishment, Sehat focuses on a series of dissenters--abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, socialist Eugene V. Debs, and many others. Shattering myths held by both the left and right, David Sehat forces us to rethink some of our most deeply held beliefs. By showing the bad history used on both sides, he denies partisans a safe refuge with the Founders.

New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty

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Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812208951
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty by : Evan Haefeli

Download or read book New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty written by Evan Haefeli and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The settlers of New Netherland were obligated to uphold religious toleration as a legal right by the Dutch Republic's founding document, the 1579 Union of Utrecht, which stated that "everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion." For early American historians this statement, unique in the world at its time, lies at the root of American pluralism. New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty offers a new reading of the way tolerance operated in colonial America. Using sources in several languages and looking at laws and ideas as well as their enforcement and resistance, Evan Haefeli shows that, although tolerance as a general principle was respected in the colony, there was a pronounced struggle against it in practice. Crucial to the fate of New Netherland were the changing religious and political dynamics within the English empire. In the end, Haefeli argues, the most crucial factor in laying the groundwork for religious tolerance in colonial America was less what the Dutch did than their loss of the region to the English at a moment when the English were unusually open to religious tolerance. This legacy, often overlooked, turns out to be critical to the history of American religious diversity. By setting Dutch America within its broader imperial context, New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty offers a comprehensive and nuanced history of a conflict integral to the histories of the Dutch republic, early America, and religious tolerance.

The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 1

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 140082625X
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 1 by : James Hitchcock

Download or read book The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 1 written by James Hitchcock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing. This, the first of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, provides the first comprehensive exploration of the Supreme Court's approach to religion, offering a close look at every case, including some that scholars have ignored. Hitchcock traces the history of the way the Court has rendered important decisions involving religious liberty. Prior to World War II it issued relatively few decisions interpreting the Religious Clauses of the Constitution. Nonetheless, it addressed some very important ideas, including the 1819 Dartmouth College case, which protected private religious education from state control, and the Mormon polygamy cases, which established the principle that religious liberty was restricted by the perceived good of society. It was not until the 1940s that a revolutionary change occurred in the way the Supreme Court viewed religion. During that era, the Court steadily expanded the scope of religious liberty to include many things that were probably not intended by the framers of the Constitution, and it narrowed the permissible scope of religion in public life, barring most kinds of public aid to religious schools and forbidding almost all forms of religious expression in the public schools. This book, along with its companion volume, From "Higher Law" to "Sectarian Scruples," offers a fresh analysis of the Court's most important decisions in constitutional doctrine. Sweeping in range, it paints a detailed picture of the changing relationship between religion and the state in American history.

Law and Religion, An Overview

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135156076X
Total Pages : 539 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Law and Religion, An Overview by : Silvio Ferrari

Download or read book Law and Religion, An Overview written by Silvio Ferrari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus of this volume is on the historical and geographical elements of law and religion. The first part delineates and analyzes the relation between church and state from the Gregorian Revolution to the human rights era and gives a sense of the evolution of the church and state relationship, whilst the second part explores law and religion issues around the world. The volume redresses the tendency towards a western-centric approach in the discipline by including essays from regional experts which present local approaches to law and religion in Asia, Africa, and South America. The collection is unique in that it brings together wide-ranging case studies and out-of-print papers and is an important resource for established and new scholars in the field.

Indigeneity, Citizenship and the State

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000905845
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Indigeneity, Citizenship and the State by : Kedilezo Kikhi

Download or read book Indigeneity, Citizenship and the State written by Kedilezo Kikhi and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-16 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whatever be the definition of 'indigenous' vis-a-vis 'indigeneity', and however concensual it might be, both these terms have been inferred, applied and questioned in multifarious ways. The concept indigeneity in Asia has transformed considerably, over a period of time. With the rise in the indigeneity movement and large-scale migration, citizenship within national borders is challenged, and the borders in question are also contested. This book chronicles the discernible strains on the questions of indegeneity, citizenship, identity, and border making in the Northeast India. The issues pertaining to indigeneity, citizenship, and state, are also a reminder of the residues of colonial doings that have had a colossal impact till this day. Through empirical evidence backed by theoretical underpinnings, each essay in the book demonstrates the diversity of approaches that can be used to interrogate the debate on indegeneity, citizenship, the state, and opens the conversation on Northeast India. This book is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Beyond Toleration : The Religious Origins of American Pluralism

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198041608
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Toleration : The Religious Origins of American Pluralism by : Chris Beneke Assistant Professor of History Bentley College

Download or read book Beyond Toleration : The Religious Origins of American Pluralism written by Chris Beneke Assistant Professor of History Bentley College and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006-09-25 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At its founding, the United States was one of the most religiously diverse places in the world. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Lutherans, Huguenots, Dunkers, Jews, Moravians, and Mennonites populated the nations towns and villages. Dozens of new denominations would emerge over the succeeding years. What allowed people of so many different faiths to forge a nation together? In this richly told story of ideas, Chris Beneke demonstrates how the United States managed to overcome the religious violence and bigotry that characterized much of early modern Europe and America. The key, Beneke argues, did not lie solely in the protection of religious freedom. Instead, he reveals how American culture was transformed to accommodate the religious differences within it. The expansion of individual rights, the mixing of believers and churches in the same institutions, and the introduction of more civility into public life all played an instrumental role in creating the religious pluralism for which the United States has become renowned. These changes also established important precedents for future civil rights movements in which dignity, as much as equality, would be at stake. Beyond Toleration is the first book to offer a systematic explanation of how early Americans learned to live with differences in matters of the highest importance to them --and how they found a way to articulate these differences civilly. Today when religious conflicts once again pose a grave danger to democratic experiments across the globe, Beneke's book serves as a timely reminder of how one country moved past toleration and towards religious pluralism.

The Tragedy of Religious Freedom

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674074157
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tragedy of Religious Freedom by : Marc O. DeGirolami

Download or read book The Tragedy of Religious Freedom written by Marc O. DeGirolami and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to questions of religion, legal scholars face a predicament. They often expect to resolve dilemmas according to general principles of equality, neutrality, or the separation of church and state. But such abstractions fail to do justice to the untidy welter of values at stake. Offering new views of how to understand and protect religious freedom in a democracy, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom challenges the idea that matters of law and religion should be referred to far-flung theories about the First Amendment. Examining a broad array of contemporary and more established Supreme Court rulings, Marc DeGirolami explains why conflicts implicating religious liberty are so emotionally fraught and deeply contested. Twenty-first-century realities of pluralism have outrun how scholars think about religious freedom, DeGirolami asserts. Scholars have not been candid enough about the tragic nature of the conflicts over religious liberty—the clash of opposing interests and aspirations they entail, and the limits of human reason to resolve intractable differences. The Tragedy of Religious Freedom seeks to turn our attention from abstracted, absolute values to concrete, historical realities. Social history, characterized by the struggles of lawyers engaged in the details of irreducible conflicts, represents the most promising avenue to negotiate legal conflicts over religion. In this volume, DeGirolami offers an approach to understanding religious liberty that is neither rigidly systematic nor ad hoc, but a middle path grounded in a pluralistic and historically informed perspective.

The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739189174
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality by : David Peddle

Download or read book The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality written by David Peddle and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state obscures the substantial connection that exists between the Christian religion and American liberalism. The central thesis of this work challenges the legitimacy of this metaphor as it appears in Supreme Court decisions and in the thought of the philosopher John Rawls. The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality provides a provocative interpretation of the nature of Christian and liberal principles, suggesting that the principles of individual freedom and equality were forged even within the conservative elements of Calvinism and Puritanism. Recognition of this substantial intellectual connection has the potential to help reshape our conception of the separation of church and state by tempering the opposition between religious and political concepts and values. The purpose of The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality then, is to contribute to an understanding of public reason that is more open to the contributions of religious perspectives. The work attempts to show how religious doctrines, currently obscured by historical context and hermeneutical dogmatism, have nonetheless played a formative role in the evolution of the freedom and equality that is foundational to contemporary liberalism. Understanding the genesis of the concepts of freedom and equality tempers the conceptual opposition between church and state and allows a clearer more inclusive interpretation of the nature of their separation. The originality of the work is fourfold: (1) the challenge its central thesis poses to dominant constructions of public reason, freedom, and equality; (2) the interdisciplinary method through which it brings the findings of a variety of disciplines to bear on a central issues in political philosophy; (3) the challenge it brings to the analytic and pragmatic approach of contemporary liberalism through its assertion of the importance of historical context to contemporary ideas; and (4) the degree to which it engages theology in its relation to contemporary questions.

Index of Conference Proceedings

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 800 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Index of Conference Proceedings by : British Library. Document Supply Centre

Download or read book Index of Conference Proceedings written by British Library. Document Supply Centre and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Religious Freedom

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Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469634635
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Freedom by : Tisa Wenger

Download or read book Religious Freedom written by Tisa Wenger and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious freedom is so often presented as a timeless American ideal and an inalienable right, appearing fully formed at the founding of the United States. That is simply not so, Tisa Wenger contends in this sweeping and brilliantly argued book. Instead, American ideas about religious freedom were continually reinvented through a vibrant national discourse--Wenger calls it "religious freedom talk--that cannot possibly be separated from the evolving politics of race and empire. More often than not, Wenger demonstrates, religious freedom talk worked to privilege the dominant white Christian population. At the same time, a diverse array of minority groups at home and colonized people abroad invoked and reinterpreted this ideal to defend themselves and their ways of life. In so doing they posed sharp challenges to the racial and religious exclusions of American life. People of almost every religious stripe have argued, debated, negotiated, and brought into being an ideal called American religious freedom, subtly transforming their own identities and traditions in the process. In a post-9/11 world, Wenger reflects, public attention to religious freedom and its implications is as consequential as it has ever been.

Religious Freedom

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525506829
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Freedom by : Corey Brettschneider

Download or read book Religious Freedom written by Corey Brettschneider and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand the most contentious issues around religious liberty, this volume provides influential philosophical ideas from the U.S.’s founding to the present day and key U.S. Supreme Court judgements to ask how the two twin pillars of religious freedom — free exercise and the limit on religious establishment — unfold in daily life. A Penguin Classic With the Penguin Liberty series by Penguin Classics, we look to the U.S. Constitution’s text and values, as well as to American history and some of the country’s most important thinkers, to discover the best explanations of our constitutional ideals of liberty. Through these curated anthologies of historical, political, and legal classic texts, Penguin Liberty offers everyday citizens the chance to hear the strongest defenses of these ideals, engage in constitutional interpretation, and gain new (or renewed) appreciation for the values that have long inspired the nation. Questions of liberty affect both our daily lives and our country’s values, from what we can say to whom we can marry, how society views us to how we determine our leaders. It is Americans’ great privilege that we live under a Constitution that both protects our liberty and allows us to debate what that liberty should mean.

Americans Knocking at Freedom’S Door

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Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 1532001029
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Americans Knocking at Freedom’S Door by : Bernie Lee (Yoder) Smith-DeBoe

Download or read book Americans Knocking at Freedom’S Door written by Bernie Lee (Yoder) Smith-DeBoe and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans pursue life and liberty through their religious freedom, economic well-being, and self-governance that includes a basic understanding of the constitutional principles provided by our founding fathers. Hopefully, our pursuit of life and liberty also includes a curiosity to explore our rich and diverse history. Americans Knocking at Freedoms Door is a uniquely American heritage of religious freedoms and government of and by the people. The author, Bernie Lee Yoder Smith-DeBoe, presents a conversational discussion and a historical exploration of our Christian roots. This book begins with Noahs ark and continues with the ancient tribes, the Middle Ages, religious wars, American DNA, and why the early settlers came to America. Our knowledge of American history generally includes our founding fathers, the Civil War, and more contemporary wars; however, this tells us very little about our early settlers, their challenges, and their background as people of religious faith. This book offers some historical background and stories about those who established and helped the United States to grow and flourish. It reminds us that we are Americans. We stand together as Americans, and we need to come together as Americans.

Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace

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Author :
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815705499
Total Pages : 122 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (54 download)

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Book Synopsis Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace by : James Davison Hunter

Download or read book Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace written by James Davison Hunter and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom of Religion—protected in America for two hundred years by the Bill of Rights—has become more a source of divisiveness than the binding force it used to be in American life. Abortion, school prayer, creation science, and secular humanism are a few examples of the conflict between religious liberty and public justice that arise today. Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace examines the contemporary challenges to religious liberty and explores ways in which the public philosophy can be reinvigorated. Steering between the extremes of a "sacred public square," in which any one faith is established or preferred, and a "naked public square," from which all faiths have been removed, the authors argue for, and exemplify, a civil public square. And they try to answer the vital question: how do we, in an age of expanding worldwide pluralism, live with our deepest, religiously intense, differences. Peter L. Berger, Harold J. Berman, Os Guinness, James Davidson Hunter, William Lee Miller, Michael J. Sandel, and Charles Taylor are the distinguished contributors to this book who speak from different academic disciplines and diverse personal perspectives. Their concerns converge in this dynamic and thought-provoking discussion important to every American. The authors acknowledge that American pluralism has grown beyond the traditional "Protestant-Catholic-Jew" into a genuine multifaith pluralism, and that religious liberty entails the freedom to dissent as well as to believe. Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace is a proposal and discussion that carries great promise for the pressing problems of religion in American public life. The vision of a civil public square, and a common goal for common good, offers a way for American diversity to remain a source of strength and richness. Only with such commitments will democratic debate remain robust and religious liberty remain a component of a vital democracy.