The essays that follow were originally presented at a conference held in connection with the bicentennial of Georgetown University. The topic, the constitutional status of claims for exemption based on religion from general legislation, fit well into the bicentennial's theme “Learning, Faith, Freedom.” The connection between claims based upon faith and the freedoms we exercise could be illuminated by a scholarly examination drawing upon the disciplines of law, history, and theology.

The historical studies provide an overview of the background of the religion clauses of the first amendment, and a case study of the implementation of the principles of those clauses in the nineteenth century. Father Curry's essay stresses the inconsistency between the articulated principles of nonestablishment and free exercise, and the actual practices in the colonies and early republic. By bringing the historian's sense of the complexity of experience to the subject, he provides a useful corrective to the lawyer's usual effort to rely too heavily on historical experience to justify contemporary positions about the meaning of the first amendment. At the same time, Father Curry does not hesitate to say that the inconsistencies between historical practice and principles should probably be resolved in favor of principles, on the ground that practices were unreflective and habitual, whereas principles were articulated in the midst of controversies that required Americans to think seriously about the nature of their most fundamental commitments.