Separation of Church and State - Couverture souple

Hamburger, Philip

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0674013743 ISBN 13 : 9780674013742

Editeur : Harvard University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In a powerful challenge to conventional wisdom, Philip Hamburger argues that the separation of church and state has no historical foundation in the First Amendment. The detailed evidence assembled here shows that eighteenth-century Americans almost never invoked this principle. Although Thomas Jefferson and others retrospectively claimed that the First Amendment separated church and state, separation became part of American constitutional law only much later.

Hamburger shows that separation became a constitutional freedom largely through fear and prejudice. Jefferson supported separation out of hostility to the Federalist clergy of New England. Nativist Protestants (ranging from nineteenth-century Know Nothings to twentieth-century members of the K.K.K.) adopted the principle of separation to restrict the role of Catholics in public life. Gradually, these Protestants were joined by theologically liberal, anti-Christian secularists, who hoped that separation would limit Christianity and all other distinct religions. Eventually, a wide range of men and women called for separation. Almost all of these Americans feared ecclesiastical authority, particularly that of the Catholic Church, and, in response to their fears, they increasingly perceived religious liberty to require a separation of church from state. American religious liberty was thus redefined and even transformed. In the process, the First Amendment was often used as an instrument of intolerance and discrimination.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Philip Hamburger is Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and President of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of Separation of Church and State, Law and Judicial Duty, and Is Administrative Law Unlawful?

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Harvard University Press
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0674013743
• ISBN 13: 9780674013742
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 528
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Amazon EU Sarl; 0; www.amazon.com; ; 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; 0; L-1855; Luxembourg