Church and State in Early Modern Ecclesiastical Historiography

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 468-490
Author(s):  
Anthony Milton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
English History ◽  
Ecclesiastical History

‘Church and state’ is a phrase that one rarely meets with in most early modern ecclesiastical history that has been written over the past fifty years. One major exception has been the United States of America, where the phrase even has its own journal. With regard to early modern English history, one rare exception very much proves the rule: Leo Solt’sChurch and State in Early Modern England(a synthetic work published in 1990) is the work of an American historian, who admits in his preface that he has chosen to interpret the relationship ‘very broadly’, and that the book ‘might be more accurately entitled “Religion and Politics in Early Modern England”’. The axiomatic status of the separation of church and state in the United States, and its continuing use as a political football, has given the phrase a prominence in public discourse that has naturally been reflected in American historiography, where figures such as Roger Williams invite the application of later terminology to the seventeenth century. Where ‘church and state’ have not been separated (or at least had not been in the early modern period), the term seems to have been less appealing to historians, at least to those working on the period before the assault on established churches in the nineteenth century.

scholarly journals Book Review: Religion and Politics in America: An Encyclopedia of Church and State in American Life

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Amanda Sprochi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
American Life ◽  
Politics And Religion ◽  
University History ◽  
History Of

Religion and Politics in America: An Encyclopedia of Church and State in American Life provides an overview of the relationship between politics and religion in the United States. Smith, president of Tyndale International University, history instructor at Georgia Gwinnett College, and Presbyterian minister, with his collaborators, has created a resource that spans the history of the United States from the colonial era to the present day. The 360 entries in the encyclopedia are arranged alphabetically by topic and are signed by the contributor, and each article includes references for further reading. Cross-references, a chronological time line, and a comprehensive index help to identify particular topics and to facilitate further reading.

Law, the U.S. Supreme Court, and Religion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek H. Davis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
State Court ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court’s religion jurisprudence is typically analyzed based on whether a court’s decision emerges from an Establishment Clause analysis or a Free Exercise Clause analysis. While this method is useful, a more in-depth analysis can be undertaken by identifying various philosophical themes that describe the court’s varied approaches to deciding religion cases. The cases can be analyzed under at least four separate but interrelated themes: separation of church and state, cooperation between sacred and secular activities in religion-based contexts, equal treatment among religions, and the integration of religion and politics. This article examines the High Court’s often controversial decisions affecting religion through the lenses of these four themes. The term “separation of church and state” is frequently used to describe the American relationship between law and religion, but this term is far too simplistic a description of how church and state interact in the American system; the ways in which the system sometimes embraces separation but sometimes does not, are analyzed and explained. Consistent with the misconception that the Supreme Court always seeks to “separate” church and state, court analysts will sometimes describe the court’s strategy as giving “no aid” to religion. This also is a simplistic analysis, since it can clearly be shown that the court does not seek to “wall” off religion from government aid in all cases. Rather, the court tends to sanction state support of “secular” activities that arise in religion contexts while denying state aid to the “sacred” components of religious activity. “Equality” is a hallmark of American democracy. While the Founders did not earmark equality as a goal of the religion clauses, the concept has nevertheless emerged as a byproduct of deeper goals, namely sanctioning religious pluralism and providing equal access to government office. If separation of church and state were really the centerpiece of how religion and state activity interact in the United States, the Supreme Court would not sanction the involvement of religion in public debate and discourse, nor would it permit political candidates and officeholders to freely talk about religion in their personal lives and its role in American political life. But the court carefully crafts a jurisprudence that rarely intrudes on this kind of activity. In sum, looking at Supreme Court religion cases through a number of philosophical lenses is a fruitful guide to understanding court decisions that are otherwise often highly complex and confusing.

Refugiés Or Émigrés? Early Modern French Migrations to British North America and the United States (c. 1680 – c. 1820)

Itinerario ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-32
Author(s):  
Bertrand Van Ruymbeke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
British North America ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Gulf Of Saint Lawrence

Historians have traditionally paid relatively little attention to the French migrations to America. Although in the early modern period France was a demographic giant, had a deep – yet not enough recognized – maritime tradition, had many colonies in the Americas from the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence to the Amazon, and suffered from a tumultuous political history comparatively few of its people migrated to British North America and the United States. France has therefore and to some extent understandably enjoyed minimal visibility in the American ethnic landscape. There is, however, a long tradition of French migrations to America, beginning with the Huguenots at the end of the seventeenth century. At times these influxes were important in terms of number and influence, indeed in 1690 and in 1790 French was spoken in the streets of Charleston and of Philadelphia.

Humanism and Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey J. Kripal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of

The chapter begins with a brief history of higher education, primarily in Europe and the United States. Such a history is traditionally traced back to ancient Greece, moves through medieval Europe and the Middle East, and eventually focuses on how religious forms of proto-humanist thought and early science split off from one another in the early modern period, post-1600. A summary follows of some of the debates, particularly around the nature and scope of “the human,” that are presently of deep interest in the humanities. The chapter concludes with some critical reflections on where humanist intellectuals might want to go from here and calls for new and more inclusive forms of the humanist imagination.

scholarly journals AN UNSTEADY ‘WALL OF SEPARATION’: A FEW CONSIDERATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-190
Author(s):  
L. Scott Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
The One

This is a polemical essay concerning the "wall of separation" between church and state in the United States of America. The author observes that there is a political struggle between defenders of religion, primarily Christians, on the one hand, and secularists on the other. Typical reasons given by secularists for a hard and fast division between church and state, and/or religion and politics, are historical, constitutional, and cultural. Underlying all of these reasons perhaps is the idea that faith is cognitively inferior to knowledge and therefore has no place in the public square. The author vigorously contests each aspect of the secularists' position and explores in further detail the epistemological distinctions between faith and knowledge.

Drama and ceremony in early modern England: the REED project

Urban History ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 38-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally-Beth MacLean
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Theatre History ◽  
English Drama ◽  
Stated Goal ◽  
Musical Activity ◽  
Early English

In 1976 a medieval and renaissance theatre history project was launched under the masthead Records of Early English Drama (now more familiarly known as REED). The official launch had taken two years of planning by scholars from Britain, Canada and the United States, and was given assurance for the future through a ten-year major Editorial Grant from the Canada Council. REED's stated goal – then as now – was to find, transcribe and publish evidence of dramatic, ceremonial and musical activity in Great Britain before the theatres were closed in 1642. The systematic survey undertaken would make available for analysis records relating to the evolution of English theatre from its origins in minstrelsy, through the flowering of drama in the renaissance, to the suppression first of local and then of professional entertainment under the Puritans.

Dissent in the Atlantic World, 1787–1830

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Carté Engel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Church And State ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Population ◽  
Simple Fact ◽  
General Role

The very term ‘Dissenter’ became problematic in the United States, following the passing of the First Amendment. The formal separation of Church and state embodied in the First Amendment was followed by the ending of state-level tax support for churches. None of the states established after 1792 had formal religious establishments. Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists accounted for the majority of the American population both at the beginning and end of this period, but this simple fact masks an important compositional shift. While the denominations of Old Dissent declined relatively, Methodism grew quickly, representing a third of the population by 1850. Dissenters thus faced several different challenges. Primary among these were how to understand the idea of ‘denomination’ and also the more general role of institutional religion in a post-establishment society. Concerns about missions, and the positions of women and African Americans are best understood within this context.

Women, Power, and Families in Early Modern North America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. S. Pearsall
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
North America ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Sources Of Authority ◽  
Effects Of War

The early modern period, spanning 1500 to 1800, was a vital one for what became the United States, and families were critical to the colonies that underpinned it. Households determined lines of belonging and governance; they gave status and formed a central source of power for both women and men. They also functioned symbolically: creating metaphors for authority (father-king) as well as actual sources of authority. Colonialism, or the imposition of foreign governing regimes, also shaped families and intimacies. The regulation of domestic life was a central feature of colonial power, even as individual families, both settler and indigenous, breached rules that authorities sought to impose. This chapter considers the importance of lineage and households, as well as the effects of war, epidemics, and slavery. It traces a range of households, Native American, African, and Euro-American, to argue for the central importance of families in shaping colonial North America.

The “Separation” of Religion and Polities: The Paradoxes of Spinoza

1988 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hillel G. Fradkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
American Founding ◽  
Founding Fathers

Benedict Spinoza is the first philosophical proponent of liberal democracy. In his Theologico-Political Tractate he calls for the liberation of philosophy from theology and for the subordination of religion to politics. Though Spinoza may have not influenced the American Founding Fathers directly, both the clarity and the paradoxes of his arguments are perhaps the best guide to understanding better the present-day conflicts over religion and politics in the United States. Spinoza's insistence on the prerogative of the political sovereign to exercise absolute authority in the sphere of moral action necessarily complicates religious values. But the “inconveniences” resulting from liberal democracy are justified in terms of justice.

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