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Separation of Church and State
Books: CookBooks: Hamburgers: Item 8
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Separation of Church and Stateby Philip Hamburger
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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful: Most Outstanding Book on the Topic - MUST READ!!!, March 22, 2004 Reviewer:Shawn Harding "credo76" (Piney Point, MD United States) - Philip Hamburger, John P. Wilson Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, has written a meticulously researched account of how the American concept of religious freedom was transformed into the concept of separation of church and state. His central thesis is that this development had very little to do with the constitution itself or even with the late 18th century concept of religious liberty, but was very much a result of fear of ecclesiastical authority and anti-Catholic, or at times anti-Christian prejudice. Hamburger claims, "the federal and state constitutional provisions designed to protect religious liberty have, ironically, come to be understood in terms of an idea that substantially reduces this freedom." Hamburger begins by tracing the origins of religious freedom in America to the European Continental Anabaptists of the 16th century and the English Baptists of the 17th century who "made arguments about the freedom of conscience." He also discusses the importance of 17th century religious dissenters and Enlightenment philosophers - such as Locke and Milton - and how they "generalized these ideas into conceptions of religious freedom eventually employed by most American dissenters." Hamburger presents the reader with a firm basis in what exactly was meant by religious freedom in colonial and revolutionary America, its relation to the various amendments to state constitutions, and the ideological context for the introduction of the First Amendment to our federal Constitution. He is quite explicit that separation of church and state was not a part of any of these developments and that, on the contrary, separation was rather more of a stigma applied to antiestablishment advocates in order to discredit them. These critics of religious establishment were quick to refute the allegation that they were proponents of separation. Hamburger makes the argument that the separation of church and state first became an idea during the election of 1800's when the Federalist clergy were using their influence to oppose the election of Jefferson and the Republicans. But separation was used in this context only to oppose the perceived, or real union between ecclesiastical and political authority to undermine the Republicans. A fair amount of detail is given to Jefferson's now famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Hamburger is quite explicit in his claim that the Baptists wanted no part of Jefferson's view concerning a "wall of separation between church and state." Hamburger then deals with the rise of 'nativist' sentiments among Protestant Americans and the development of a new concept of religious freedom that would eventually become the modern concept of separation of church and state. He claims that the nativist Protestants, fearful of the Catholicism of ever increasing immigrants from Southern Europe, adopted separation as an 'American' ideal. These Protestants believed that the exclusive nature of Catholicism, along with its clear endorsement of the union between church and state, posed a clear danger to American liberty. Hamburger asserts that the nativists united into powerful political organizations in order to further the cause of separation and to undermine the political power of Catholics. Later, during the late 19th century and up until the present, secularists likewise created organizations in order to further a purely secular interpretation of separation, one that was anti-Christian in focus. Hamburger demonstrates that each of these movements was ultimately driven by forces opposed to the free exercise of religion by minority (or majority in the case of the secularists) religious groups. Both the Protestants and the secularists, realizing that separation was not guaranteed by the Constitution, lobbied for an amendment guaranteeing separation. After failing to secure passage of such an amendment they endeavored successfully to have their aims realized by judicial interpretation. He carries through with this theme for the remainder of the book, culminating in the famous Everson case where the Supreme Court fully incorporated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as interpreted by the concept of separation between church and state.
Stephen Prothero, Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2002
Hamburger [explains] the 'modern myth' of church-state separation was first popularized in the 1840s during debates about public education. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Peter Steinfels, The New York Times, July 6, 2002
A bookin which the KKK plays a more prominent role than the ACLU isto be noticed, and,debated. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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