No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty

Coeditor, No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2012) (with T. Jeremy Gunn)
Description

The First Amendment guarantee that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" rejected the millennium-old Western policy of supporting one form of Christianity in each nation and subjugating all other faiths. The exact meaning and application of this American innovation, however, has always proved elusive. Individual states found it difficult to remove traditional laws that controlled religious doctrine, liturgy, and church life, and that discriminated against unpopular religions. They found it even harder to decide more subtle legal questions that continue to divide Americans today: Did the constitution prohibit governmental support for religion altogether, or just preferential support for some religions over others? Did it require that government remove Sabbath, blasphemy, and oath-taking laws, or could they now be justified on other grounds? Did it mean the removal of religious texts, symbols, and ceremonies from public documents and government lands, or could a democratic government represent these in ever more inclusive ways? These twelve essays stake out strong and sometimes competing positions on what "no establishment of religion" meant to the American founders and to subsequent generations of Americans, and what it might mean today.
Table of Contents

  • ​Introduction – John Witte, Jr. 
  1. The Separation of Church versus Religion in the Public Square: The Contested History of the Establishment Clause – T. Jeremy Gunn 
  2. Establishment at the Founding – Michael W. McConnell 
  3. Disestablishing Religion and Protecting Religious Liberty in State Laws and Constitutions (1776-1833) – Mark D. McGarvie 
  4. Roger Williams and the Puritan Background of the Establishment Clause – David Little 
  5. Toleration and Diversity in New Netherland and the Duke's Colony: The Roots of America's First Disestablishment – Paul A. Finkelman 
  6. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the Meaning of ''Establishment of Religion'' in Eighteenth-Century Virginia – Ralph Ketcham 
  7. The Continental Congress and Emerging Ideas of Church-State Separation – Derek Davis
  8. The First Federal Congress and the Formation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment – Carl H. Esbeck 
  9. Defining and Testing the Prohibition on Religious Establishments in the Early Republic – Daniel L. Dreisbach 
  10. The Second Disestablishment: The Evolution of Nineteenth-Century Understandings of Separation of Church and State – Steven K. Green 
  11. Disestablishment from Blaine to Everson: Federalism, School Wars, and the Emerging Modern State – Thomas C. Berg 
  12. Some Reflections on Fundamental Questions About the Original Understanding of the Establishment Clause – Kent Greenawalt 
  13. Getting Beyond the ''Myth of Christian America'' –​ Martin E. Marty
Reviews
 
"This book, written by an impressive assortment of legal scholars with a wide range of views, … is a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, lawyers, and judges who seek to understand how the principle of non-establishment of religion can be used not as a tool for marginalizing or privatizing religion, but as a means of fulfilling the promise of religious freedom and equality."
​-- Brett G. Scharffs, Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University
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​"An excellent guide for anyone interested in exploring the constitutional aspects of American church history."
​-- Church History 

"Readers of the Gunn and Witte collection will get superb, vigorous essays outlining two and a half centuries of interactions between American governments and denominations, religious movements, and individual believers . The essays are so wide-ranging and generally well done that the collection reflects the best scholarship on a subject still roiling modern American life and politics."
-- Journal of Religion 

"The editors of this sterling collection recruited an all-star lineup of contributors... Historians, legal scholars, political scientists, jurists, legislators, and an interested general public should all benefit from this book... superb."
-- Renewing Minds

"As the outstanding and wide-ranging essays in this volume illustrate, Americans have often disagreed about the meaning and application of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, and have sometimes confused it with an anti-religious or secularizing policy of marginalizing or privatizing religion. The project of securing the human right to religious liberty by disentangling political and religious authority is ongoing and-as national and world events remind us every day-pressing. This book offers both a helpful introduction to and an insightful debate about the history and future of this project."
-- Richard W. Garnett, Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Notre Dame Law School