The First Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious Freedom, Expanded and UpdatedGeorgetown University Press, 7 mrt 2003 - 296 pagina's 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. |
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... enacted , a bill for the wholesale revision of the state's laws . Jefferson was himself then appointed , with four eminent and older Virginians — two of whom later resigned ( one who remained was Wythe ) —to a Committee of Revisors , to ...
... enacted into law but was set forth as a possibility , to be sorted out by some later Assembly . The Virginia Assembly of 1776 resolved , in an act of unusual deference for a legislative body , that whereas great varieties of Opinions ...
... enacting clause what some Virginians had found implicit in the " free exercise " article of the Virginia Declaration , what young Madison had even then tried to spell out : that " no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any ...
... enact bill number 82. Despite the atmosphere of revolu- tionary ardor , the eloquence of the preamble , and the growing eminence of its author , it went too far . And Jefferson himself could not do anything about it because he was no ...
... enact- ment by their brethren to the south , they decided that it represented what Virginia needed , too . They took over its provisions almost com- pletely in the bill they reported . The Virginians did go through and take out ...
Inhoudsopgave
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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 |
Overige edities - Alles bekijken
The First Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious Freedom William Lee Miller Geen voorbeeld beschikbaar - 2003 |