Research Catalog

Title

The godless constitution : the case against religious correctness / Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore.

Author

Kramnick, Isaac.

Publication

New York : Norton, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Moore, R. Laurence (Robert Laurence), 1940-

Description

191 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

The Godless Constitution is an urgent and timely reexamination of the roots of church-state separation in American politics - and a ringing refutation of the misguided claims of the religious right. In this important polemic two distinguished scholars of American political ideas and religion refute this dangerous attempt to introduce what they term "religious correctness" into our politics, by reminding us that the absence of any mention of God in the Constitution was a conscious action on the framers' part, intended to prevent the bloody religious controversies that so marked European history. They also emphasize that church-state separation was seen as a guarantee of - not a hindrance to - religions liberty. Fully respecting the importance of religion in the public sphere, yet forthright in defining proper limits, The Godless Constitution offers a bracing return to the first principles of American democracy - and a guide to keeping them intact in the forthcoming presidential campaign.

Subject

• Church and state > United States
• Freedom of religion > United States
• Religion > United States
• United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Is America a Christian nation? -- The godless constitution -- Roger Williams and the religious argument for church-state separation -- The English roots of the secular state -- The "infidel" Mr. Jefferson -- American Baptists and the Jeffersonian tradition -- Sunday mail and the Christian amendment -- Religious politics and America's moral dilemmas.

ISBN

0393039617

LCCN

^^^95020735^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library