Religion and the State

Joshua B. Stein has taught at Roger Williams University since 1969. He received his PhD from St. Louis University in history and A.M. in Religious Studies from Brown University. His most recent book is Commentary on the Constitution from Plato to Rousseau (Lexington Books, 2011). Currently, he is working on a comparative study of the literature of the First World War and the Iliad.Sargon G. Donabed is Assistant Professor at Roger Williams University, where he teaches Middle Eastern history and religious studies. He serves on the advisory board of the journal Chronos, published by the University of Balamand in Lebanon. His work has been published in journals such as Folklore and National Identities. He is a recipient of The American Academic Research Institute Iraq (TAARII) grant for his work on Assyrian folklore of Iraq and is the co-editor of The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence (2012).

• ForewordIntroductionChapter 1: Church and State in Early Modern Europe, by James HitchcockChapter 2: The Reformed Theologian, the Forgotten Political Theorist? Change and Contest in Theology and Ecclesiology in Late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth-Century Reformed England, by Sara C. KitzingerChapter 3: The Leviathan Is Not Safely to Be Angered”: The Convocation Controversy, Country Ideology, and Anglican High Churchmanship, 1689–1702, by Brent S. Sirota, Chapter 4: The French Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy: The Unintentional Turning Point, by Noah ShustermanChapter 5: Spanish Legal Solution to the Presence of Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere: A Cautious Evolution from a Catholic Denominational Past to an Effective Secularism, by Rebeca Vázquez GómezChapter 6: Church, State, and Capital Punishment in Seventeenth-Century Connecticut, by Lawrence B. GoodheartChapter 7: English Law and Religious Tolerance: The Jewish Experience in the Southern New England Colonies, 1677–1798, by Holly SnyderChapter 8: Oaths and Christian Belief in the New Nation: 1776–1789, by Tara Thompson StrauchChapter 9: Education, Religion, and the State in Post-Revolutionary America, by Keith PachollChapter 10: Fighting Over the Founders: Reflections on the Historiography of the Founders’ Faiths, by Matt McCookIndex

A significant range of essays by an impressive array of scholars. This book is attentive to the ironic interplay of religious and secular forces during what could be called the founding era of liberal democracy.