The role of religion in the founding of America has long been a hotly debated question. Some historians have regarded the faith of a few famous founders, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, as evidence that the founders were deists who advocated the strict separation of church and state. Popular Christian polemicists, on the other hand, have attempted to show that virtually all of the founders were orthodox Christians in favor of state support for religion. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, a diverse array of religious traditions informed the political culture of the American founding. Faith and the Founders of the American Republic includes studies both of minority faiths, such as Islam and Judaism, and of major traditions, such as Calvinism. It also includes nuanced analysis of specific founders--Quaker John Dickinson, prominent Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, and Federalist Gouverneur Morris, among many others--with attention to their personal histories, faiths, constitutional philosophies, and views on the relationship between religion and the state. This volume will be a crucial resource for anyone interested in the place of faith in the founding of the American constitutional republic, from political, religious, historical, and legal perspectives.
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Thirteen essays written by leading scholars explore the impact of a rich variety of religious traditions on the political thought of America's founders.
Contributors ; Introduction - Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark David Hall ; PART I: Religion and Political Culture in the American Founding ; Chapter 1 Deism and the Founders - Darren Staloff ; Chapter 2 Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos: The Influence of the Reformed Tradition in the American Founding - Mark David Hall ; Chapter 3 Jews, Judaism, and the American Founding - David G. Dalin ; Chapter 4 The Founders and Islam - Thomas S. Kidd ; Chapter 5 Religion and the Loyalists - Robert M. Calhoon and Ruma Chopra ; Chapter 6 The Antifederalists and Religion - Donald L. Drakeman ; Chapter 7 The Bible in the Political Culture of the American Founding - Daniel L. Dreisbach ; Chapter 8 Religion, Race, and the Founders - Jonathan D. Sassi ; PART II: Faith and the Founders ; Chapter 9 Gouverneur Morris and Theistic Rationalism in the Founding Era - Gregg Frazer ; Chapter 10 John Hancock: Congregationalist Revolutionary - Gary Scott Smith ; Chapter 11 Elias Boudinot, Presbyterians, and the Quest for a "Righteous Republic" - Jonathan Den Hartog ; Chapter 12 The Quaker Contributions of John Dickinson to the Creation of the American Republic - Jane E. Calvert ; Chapter 13 Isaac Backus and John Leland: Baptist Contributions to Religious Liberty in the Founding Era - Joe L. Coker ; Index
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Dreisbach and Hall's volume definitely advances the conversation about religion and the founding through widening the scope of topics considered and acknowledging the complexity of the issue.
"This book does a splendid job of illuminating varieties of American revolutionary and religious experience...." --Journal of American History "Dreisbach and Hall's volume definitely advances the conversation about religion and the founding through widening the scope of topics considered and acknowledging the complexity of the issue." --Religion in American History "This book helpfully extends the excellent efforts that its editors have been making for several years to clarify, but also to complicate, historical understanding of religion and the American founding."--Journal of Religion "This is a unique and very interesting volume. There have been many works on the faith of the American founders, but this one is both notably comprehensive and intriguing. Its contents range from deism to Judaism to Calvinism to Islam, from Loyalists to Baptists, from Quakers to Presbyterians, from John Hancock to John Dickinson, from the Bible to race. Much of this work breaks entirely new ground. Kudos to Daniel Dreisbach, Mark David Hall, and their colleagues for a real contribution to the field and for some fascinating reading." --Paul Kengor, Professor of Political Science, Grove City College "Faith and the Founders of the American Republic is a collection of essays that rises above the unfounded orthodoxies and retrieves encrusted orthodoxies back into historical analysis... [It] is at the forefront of this historiographical sea change. Things that should not have been forgotten were lost but now have been found. What many had relegated to myth is being returned to history." --British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies "This volume seeks to restore the notion that many of the founding if lesser-known lights of the Revolutionary era were decidedly religious, and brought their religious perspectives and motives to bear on their political convictions and actions. The topics are quite diverse from considerations of the role of Judaism and Islam to various political factions (Loyalists, Federalists) to various figures such as Elias Boudinot and John Hancock." --Religious Studies Review
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Selling point: Introduces readers to a wide range of religious traditions and their impact on America's founders and late-eighteenth-century political culture
Daniel L. Dreisbach is Professor of Justice, Law and Society at American University. Mark David Hall is the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics and Faculty Fellow in the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University.
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Selling point: Introduces readers to a wide range of religious traditions and their impact on America's founders and late-eighteenth-century political culture

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780199843350
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press Inc
Vekt
499 gr
Høyde
231 mm
Bredde
155 mm
Dybde
28 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
384

Biographical note

Mark David Hall is Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University. Daniel L. Dreisbach is Professor of Justice, Law and Society at American University.