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The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom by Steven D. Smith at Abbey's Bookshop,
The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom
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Steven D. Smith

The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom

Steven D. Smith

$86.95

Hardback

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English
Harvard University Press
18 February 2014
Religious freedom & freedom of worship
Familiar accounts of religious freedom in the United States often tell a story of visionary founders who broke from the centuries-old patterns of Christendom to establish a political arrangement committed to secular and religiously neutral government. These novel commitments were supposedly embodied in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. But this story is largely a fairytale, Steven Smith says in this incisive examination of a much-mythologized subject. He makes the case that the American achievement was not a rejection of Christian commitments but a retrieval of classic Christian ideals of freedom of the church and freedom of conscience.

Smith maintains that the distinctive American contribution to religious freedom was not in the First Amendment, which was intended merely to preserve the political status quo in matters of religion. What was important was the commitment to open contestation between secularist and providentialist understandings of the nation which evolved over the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, far from vindicating constitutional principles, as conventional wisdom suggests, the Supreme Court imposed secular neutrality, which effectively repudiated this commitment to open contestation. Rather than upholding what was distinctively American and constitutional, these decisions subverted it. The negative consequences are visible today in the incoherence of religion clause jurisprudence and the intense culture wars in American politics.
By:  
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 156mm,  Spine: 23mm
Weight:   485g
ISBN:   9780674724754
ISBN 10:   0674724755
Pages:   240
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Primary ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Steven D. Smith is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and Co-Executive Director of the USD Institute for Law and Religion.

Reviews for The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom

Smith argues that the goal of American religious liberty has been ill served by the Supreme Court doctrines of the past half century. No mere diatribe, but a careful critique by a tremendously erudite and subtle scholar, <i>The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom </i>is one of the most important books on religious liberty in years.--Andrew Koppelman, Northwestern University


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