... L. Holmes, William Lee Miller, Thomas Curry, James Hutson, and Frank Lambert might leave one ... more ... L. Holmes, William Lee Miller, Thomas Curry, James Hutson, and Frank Lambert might leave one wondering whether there is anything left to discover about religion and politics in eighteenth‐century America. How refreshing, then, to read Chris Beneke's Beyond Toleration ...
This chapter details the end of exclusive religious establishments and the birth of a more civil ... more This chapter details the end of exclusive religious establishments and the birth of a more civil religious climate in America. As the Revolution neared, the ideal of “religious liberty” assumed prominence. At the same time, the traditional ideal of toleration was rejected by those whose ancestors would have gladly received it. Voluminous newspaper and pamphlet disputes over a colonial Anglican bishop and the campaigns for religious liberty in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania revealed the contours of a new cultural environment. In the integrated religious setting of pre-revolutionary America, harsh language itself could seem like a violation of religious liberty. With a much larger range of groups participating freely in the discussion of public problems, the scope of injury was widened to include the intangible slights that once would have gone unnoticed. The end of toleration left revolutionary-era Americans with the challenging task of articulating their differences throu...
Robert Wiebe was best known for his 1 967 book, The Searchfor Order, 1877-1920, which traced the ... more Robert Wiebe was best known for his 1 967 book, The Searchfor Order, 1877-1920, which traced the transformation ofAmerican society from a land of culturally isolated "island communities" to an interdependent, bureaucratized society. Through his elegantly metaphorical prose, Wiebe transported readers to a time when Americans were neither able to control nor fully justify the institutions they had created. Wiebe's next book, The Segmented Society: An Introduction to the Meaning ofAmerica (1975), did not receive anywhere near the same attention. Nonetheless, it established the framework that guided his later work. "What held Americans together," Wiebe contended, "was their ability to live apart." An abundant supply of land, coupled with a willingness to move, made it easy for nineteenth-century Americans to keep their distance. If The Search for Order marked the fall of a vibrant "white man's democracy," his fourth book. The Opening ofAme...
The Third Disestablishment: Church, State, and American Culture, 1940–1975 examines the formative... more The Third Disestablishment: Church, State, and American Culture, 1940–1975 examines the formative period in the development of modern church–state law. It discusses the cultural background for the Supreme Court’s adoption of separation of church and state as the controlling constitutional construct and then the popular response to that adoption. This cultural backdrop included a period of heightened tensions between institutional Protestantism and Catholicism, a conflict that did not dissipate until after the election of John F. Kennedy and the reforms of Vatican II. The book then considers the decline of church–state separation as a legal principle and a cultural value, a process that began in the 1960s with the rise of social welfare legislation under the Great Society.
The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated... more The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated as political subversives and unorthodox doctrines still compared to contagious diseases. This chapter briefly summarizes the long history of persecution in Europe and America, emphasizing the ideal of religious uniformity and the practice of religious localism. It then traces the emergence of toleration and the limits of the “divine right of private judgment”. The chapter concludes with an account of an early religious controversy involving Benjamin Franklin to underscore the relationship between the growth of the print trade and the expansion of religious autonomy.
Abstract: From the colonial period to the present, no form of integration (defined as the opening... more Abstract: From the colonial period to the present, no form of integration (defined as the opening of institutions and communal spaces to members of different groups) has produced more conflict than the integration of American schools. Struggles to open other locations ...
“That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be ... more “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; ...
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of... more Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi ...
"From Jamestown to Jefferson" sheds new light on the contexts surrounding Thomas Jeffer... more "From Jamestown to Jefferson" sheds new light on the contexts surrounding Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom and on the emergence of the American understanding of religious freedom by examining its deep roots in colonial Virginia's remarkable religious diversity. Challenging traditional assumptions about life in early Virginia, the essays in this volume show that the colony was more religious, more diverse, and more tolerant than commonly supposed. The presence of groups as disparate as Quakers, African and African American slaves, and Presbyterians, alongside the established Anglicans, generated a dynamic tension between religious diversity and attempts at hegemonic authority that was apparent from Virginia's earliest days. The contributors, all renowned scholars of Virginia history, treat in detail the complex interactions among Virginia's varied religious groups, both in and out of power, as well as the seismic changes unleashed by the Statute's adoption in 1786. "From Jamestown to Jefferson" suggests that the daily religious practices and struggles that took place in the town halls, backwoods settlements, plantation houses, and slave quarters that dotted the colonial Virginia landscape helped create a social and political space within which a new understanding of religious freedom, represented by Jefferson's Statute, could emerge. "Contributors" Edward L. Bond, Alabama A&M University * Richard E. Bond, Virginia Wesleyan College * Thomas E. Buckley, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University/Graduate Theological Union * Daniel L. Dreisbach, American University, School of Public Affairs * Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University * Monica Najar, Lehigh University * Paul Rasor, Virginia Wesleyan College * Brent Tarter, Library of Virginia"
... L. Holmes, William Lee Miller, Thomas Curry, James Hutson, and Frank Lambert might leave one ... more ... L. Holmes, William Lee Miller, Thomas Curry, James Hutson, and Frank Lambert might leave one wondering whether there is anything left to discover about religion and politics in eighteenth‐century America. How refreshing, then, to read Chris Beneke's Beyond Toleration ...
This chapter details the end of exclusive religious establishments and the birth of a more civil ... more This chapter details the end of exclusive religious establishments and the birth of a more civil religious climate in America. As the Revolution neared, the ideal of “religious liberty” assumed prominence. At the same time, the traditional ideal of toleration was rejected by those whose ancestors would have gladly received it. Voluminous newspaper and pamphlet disputes over a colonial Anglican bishop and the campaigns for religious liberty in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania revealed the contours of a new cultural environment. In the integrated religious setting of pre-revolutionary America, harsh language itself could seem like a violation of religious liberty. With a much larger range of groups participating freely in the discussion of public problems, the scope of injury was widened to include the intangible slights that once would have gone unnoticed. The end of toleration left revolutionary-era Americans with the challenging task of articulating their differences throu...
Robert Wiebe was best known for his 1 967 book, The Searchfor Order, 1877-1920, which traced the ... more Robert Wiebe was best known for his 1 967 book, The Searchfor Order, 1877-1920, which traced the transformation ofAmerican society from a land of culturally isolated "island communities" to an interdependent, bureaucratized society. Through his elegantly metaphorical prose, Wiebe transported readers to a time when Americans were neither able to control nor fully justify the institutions they had created. Wiebe's next book, The Segmented Society: An Introduction to the Meaning ofAmerica (1975), did not receive anywhere near the same attention. Nonetheless, it established the framework that guided his later work. "What held Americans together," Wiebe contended, "was their ability to live apart." An abundant supply of land, coupled with a willingness to move, made it easy for nineteenth-century Americans to keep their distance. If The Search for Order marked the fall of a vibrant "white man's democracy," his fourth book. The Opening ofAme...
The Third Disestablishment: Church, State, and American Culture, 1940–1975 examines the formative... more The Third Disestablishment: Church, State, and American Culture, 1940–1975 examines the formative period in the development of modern church–state law. It discusses the cultural background for the Supreme Court’s adoption of separation of church and state as the controlling constitutional construct and then the popular response to that adoption. This cultural backdrop included a period of heightened tensions between institutional Protestantism and Catholicism, a conflict that did not dissipate until after the election of John F. Kennedy and the reforms of Vatican II. The book then considers the decline of church–state separation as a legal principle and a cultural value, a process that began in the 1960s with the rise of social welfare legislation under the Great Society.
The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated... more The story opens in the first three decades of the 18th century when dissenters were still treated as political subversives and unorthodox doctrines still compared to contagious diseases. This chapter briefly summarizes the long history of persecution in Europe and America, emphasizing the ideal of religious uniformity and the practice of religious localism. It then traces the emergence of toleration and the limits of the “divine right of private judgment”. The chapter concludes with an account of an early religious controversy involving Benjamin Franklin to underscore the relationship between the growth of the print trade and the expansion of religious autonomy.
Abstract: From the colonial period to the present, no form of integration (defined as the opening... more Abstract: From the colonial period to the present, no form of integration (defined as the opening of institutions and communal spaces to members of different groups) has produced more conflict than the integration of American schools. Struggles to open other locations ...
“That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be ... more “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; ...
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of... more Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi ...
"From Jamestown to Jefferson" sheds new light on the contexts surrounding Thomas Jeffer... more "From Jamestown to Jefferson" sheds new light on the contexts surrounding Thomas Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom and on the emergence of the American understanding of religious freedom by examining its deep roots in colonial Virginia's remarkable religious diversity. Challenging traditional assumptions about life in early Virginia, the essays in this volume show that the colony was more religious, more diverse, and more tolerant than commonly supposed. The presence of groups as disparate as Quakers, African and African American slaves, and Presbyterians, alongside the established Anglicans, generated a dynamic tension between religious diversity and attempts at hegemonic authority that was apparent from Virginia's earliest days. The contributors, all renowned scholars of Virginia history, treat in detail the complex interactions among Virginia's varied religious groups, both in and out of power, as well as the seismic changes unleashed by the Statute's adoption in 1786. "From Jamestown to Jefferson" suggests that the daily religious practices and struggles that took place in the town halls, backwoods settlements, plantation houses, and slave quarters that dotted the colonial Virginia landscape helped create a social and political space within which a new understanding of religious freedom, represented by Jefferson's Statute, could emerge. "Contributors" Edward L. Bond, Alabama A&M University * Richard E. Bond, Virginia Wesleyan College * Thomas E. Buckley, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University/Graduate Theological Union * Daniel L. Dreisbach, American University, School of Public Affairs * Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University * Monica Najar, Lehigh University * Paul Rasor, Virginia Wesleyan College * Brent Tarter, Library of Virginia"
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