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How did the constitutional framers envision the role of religion in American public life? Did they think that the government had the right to advance or support religion and religious activities? Or did they believe that the two realms should remain forever separate? Throughout American history, scholars, Supreme Court justices, and members of the American public have debated these questions. The debate continues to have significance in the present day, especially in regard to public schools, government aid to sectarian education, and the use of public property for religious symbols. In this book, Derek Hamilton Davis offers the first comprehensive examination of the role of religion in the proceedings, theories, ideas, and goals of the Continental Congress. Those who argue that the United States was founded as a "Christian Nation" have made much of the religiosity of the founders, particularly as it was manifested in the ritual invocations of a clearly Christian God as well as in the adoption of practices such as government-sanctioned days of fasting and thanksgiving, prayers and preaching before legislative bodies, and the appointments of chaplains to the Army. Davis looks at the fifteen-year experience of the Continental Congress (1774-1789) and arrives at a contrary conclusion: namely, that the revolutionaries did not seek to entrench religion in the federal state. Congress's religious activities, he shows, expressed a genuine but often unreflective popular piety. Indeed, the whole point of the revolution was to distinguish society, the people in its sovereign majesty, from its government. A religious people would jealously guard its own sovereignty and the sovereignty of God by preventing republican rulers from pretending to any authority over religion. The idea that a modern nation could be premised on expressly theological foundations, Davis argues, was utterly antithetical to the thinking of most revolutionaries.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. vii)
• Preface(p. ix)
• 1 Original Intent as a Basis for Constitutional Interpretation(p. 3)
• 2 The Political Status of Religion in the Founding Era(p. 25)
• 3 Religion and the American Revolution(p. 39)
• 4 A Summary View of Politics and Religion in the Continental Congress(p. 57)
• 5 Chaplaincies and Days of Religious Observance Under the Continental Congress(p. 73)
• 6 Religious Dimensions of the Declaration of Independence(p. 95)
• 7 Religion and Federalism During the Confederation Period(p. 117)
• 8 National Seal and a (national?) Bible(p. 137)
• 10 The Continental Congress and Religious Liberty(p. 151)
• 10 Virtue and the Continental Congress(p. 175)
• 11 The Continental Congress, Original Intent, and Modern Constitutional Adjudication(p. 199)
• Appendix A (p. 231)
• Appendix B (p. 239)
• Notes(p. 247)
• Bibliography(p. 285)
• Index(p. 303)

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CHOICE Review

Colonies in America evolved into states held together as sovereign entities from 1774 to 1789 by the Articles of Confederation. The Continental Congress actively communicated a message to the American people that only God could provide a foundation for a solid American society. The innovative idea, however, was to make church and state separate. Congress appointed a chaplain for its sessions and then moved to appoint army chaplains. Public religious rituals were encouraged, but seven states denied clergymen the right to hold public office. Davis devotes a full chapter to the Declaration of Independence and its religious ramifications as the American public interpreted it. But he admits that the Declaration's "free-wheeling philosophy of the people's rights" was preserved by the subsequent Articles of Confederation. Davis notes that the Declaration merely freed Americans from England, and that the Articles of Confederation contained some reference to God, but the Constitution contained none. Many religious practices were carried over to the Continental Congress, but the author believes that only long-standing traditions were retained. He thus correctly concludes that the nation was not founded on a theological basis. An important, well-written book for both public and academic libraries. J. D. Born Jr.; Wichita State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Derek Hamilton-Davis is Director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Relations at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Church-State Studies. He is also the Editor of Journal of Church and State.