Book contents
- Frontmatter
- The Religious Freedom Research Project
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Christianity and Freedom: Ancient Roots and Historical Innovations
- 1 The Roots of Religious Freedom in Early Christian Thought
- 2 The Christian Roots of Religious Freedom
- 3 Lactantius on Religious Liberty and His Influence on Constantine
- 4 Augustine and Religious Freedom
- 5 Christianity and the Roots of Human Dignity in Late Antiquity
- 6 Liberty of Conscience and Freedom of Religion in the Medieval Canonists and Theologians
- 7 Faith, Liberty, and the Defense of the Poor: Bishop Las Casas in the History of Human Rights
- 8 Calvinist Contributions to Freedom in Early Modern Europe
- 9 Constitutional Protection of the Freedom of Conscience in Colonial America: The Rhode Island and Pennsylvania Experiments
- 10 Christianity and Freedom in the American Founding
- 11 Vibrant Christian Pluralism and the Evolution and Defense of Religious Liberty in America
- 12 Orthodox Christian Contributions to Freedom: Historical Foundations, Contemporary Problematics
- 13 Christianity: A Straggler on the Road to Liberty?
- 14 Protestant Missionaries and the Centrality of Conversion Attempts for the Spread of Education, Printing, Colonial Reform, and Political Democracy
- 15 God and Freedom: Biblical Roots of the Western Idea of Liberty
- Index
11 - Vibrant Christian Pluralism and the Evolution and Defense of Religious Liberty in America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2016
- Frontmatter
- The Religious Freedom Research Project
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Christianity and Freedom: Ancient Roots and Historical Innovations
- 1 The Roots of Religious Freedom in Early Christian Thought
- 2 The Christian Roots of Religious Freedom
- 3 Lactantius on Religious Liberty and His Influence on Constantine
- 4 Augustine and Religious Freedom
- 5 Christianity and the Roots of Human Dignity in Late Antiquity
- 6 Liberty of Conscience and Freedom of Religion in the Medieval Canonists and Theologians
- 7 Faith, Liberty, and the Defense of the Poor: Bishop Las Casas in the History of Human Rights
- 8 Calvinist Contributions to Freedom in Early Modern Europe
- 9 Constitutional Protection of the Freedom of Conscience in Colonial America: The Rhode Island and Pennsylvania Experiments
- 10 Christianity and Freedom in the American Founding
- 11 Vibrant Christian Pluralism and the Evolution and Defense of Religious Liberty in America
- 12 Orthodox Christian Contributions to Freedom: Historical Foundations, Contemporary Problematics
- 13 Christianity: A Straggler on the Road to Liberty?
- 14 Protestant Missionaries and the Centrality of Conversion Attempts for the Spread of Education, Printing, Colonial Reform, and Political Democracy
- 15 God and Freedom: Biblical Roots of the Western Idea of Liberty
- Index
Summary
Scripture informs us that the generations come and the generations go, but the earth remains forever. So, too, each generation confronts the fundamental struggle for human dignity and the abiding threats to liberty, including the fundamental right to live according to transcendent mandates. I would like to begin by sharing some reflections about the Supreme Court of the United States as one influential participant in the global conversation about religious liberty, and then turn to the cultural and political background that animated the powerful embrace of religious liberty as the First Freedom in the American constitutional order.
At every turn in the evolution and defense of religious freedom, as we will see, Christian pluralism and vibrancy have played pivotal roles in limning the generous contours of the freedom of conscience and belief in America. This is not to diminish the role of Enlightenment ideas or vital struggle of other religious minorities for a place at the civic table. But from the beginning, certain characteristics of the Christian community inspired the quest for, and fueled the constitutional defense of, religious liberty. Those characteristics, in brief, include the pluralism and absence of a dominant denomination, the vibrancy of free voluntaristic churches, and the agitation by dissenters or unpopular sects for their conscience rights. Before I provide illustrations, it is necessary to sketch the unique role of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional order.
For much of the American constitutional experience, the United States Supreme Court had surprisingly little to say about religious liberty. The reason for its silence was by no means Churchillian (or Clement Attlee–like) modesty; rather, it was the text of the First Amendment itself.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The express (and limited) textual reference to Congress thus meant that the Constitution's Religion Clauses were deemed applicable only to Congress (and the federal government more generally). Congress did little – for decades – that touched on questions of religious liberty.
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- Christianity and Freedom , pp. 290 - 300Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016