Endowed by Our Creator
The Birth of Religious Freedom in America
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
The debate over the framers’ concept of freedom of religion has become heated and divisive. This scrupulously researched book sets aside the half-truths, omissions, and partisan arguments, and instead focuses on the actual writings and actions of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Legal scholar Michael I. Meyerson investigates how the framers of the Constitution envisioned religious freedom and how they intended it to operate in the new republic.
Endowed by Our Creator shows that the framers understood that the American government should not acknowledge religion in a way that favors any particular creed or denomination. Nevertheless, the framers believed that religion could instill virtue and help to unify a diverse nation. They created a spiritual public vocabulary, one that could communicate to all—including agnostics and atheists—that they were valued members of the political community. Through their writings and their decisions, the framers affirmed that respect for religious differences is a fundamental American value, Meyerson concludes. Now it is for us to determine whether religion will be used to alienate and divide or to inspire and unify our religiously diverse nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The influential role of religion in American public life is indubitable. From our earliest days, cooperation and conflict between competing religious bodies has played a large part in the formation of our national character. Today, the battle has hardly abated and continues to drive our lawmakers and judiciary, sometimes in alarming directions. Meyerson, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, has penned a very fine examination of the role that religion, and religious conflict, has played in our American story. Artfully blending history and narrative, Meyerson breathes life into an often misunderstood story, examining the beliefs of our founders, and showing how those beliefs did not always determine their policy decisions. The author directs our attention to the need for "creating an accurate picture of what freedom of religion meant at the time of the framing" of our Constitution, and that freedom of religion did not mean freedom from religion. This is a wonderful book, a needed corrective to the heat that often defines the current debate.
