Recently added articles from Journal of Church and State:
The European background of American freedom.
Sep 22, 2008; ... To reach the real sources of the American concept of freedom it would be necessary to explore the annals of antiquity. The search would lead at least as far back as the civilizations of the Hebrews and Greeks, from which came the social and spiritual roots of modern Western life. Though ...
Religious conscience in colonial New England.
Sep 22, 2008; ... Religious freedom, unlike so many other American liberties, is largely an indigenous product. It is not an inheritance transplanted from Europe by the founding fathers, but is rather the outcome of peculiarly American circumstances and problems and is the end result of a slow and ...
The meaning of separation of church and state in the First Amendment.
Sep 22, 2008; ... The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which heads the Bill of Rights, stipulates: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The question that is immediately asked, however, is what ...
Commentary: the European background of American freedom.".(response to article by John W. Shepard Jr. in this issue, p. 647)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Educator John W. Shepard, Jr., had recently retired from his position at Seinan Gakuin College in Fukuoka, Japan, and assumed a position in the Baylor history department. He had served under the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for 35 years. In this essay, writing ...
Religious freedom in America and the world: commentary on "religious conscience in colonial New England".(response to article by Robert T. Miller in this issue, p. 661)
Sep 22, 2008; ... There is much with which to agree in Miller's article. Indeed we find it insightful, and strongly concur with his final sentence: <Pre>long before Europe had shaken loose her shackles of coercedreligious conformity, the development of a fresh and more wholesome...
"The meaning of separation of church and state in the First Amendment".(response to article by Joseph M. Dawson in this issue, p. 677)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Joseph M. Dawson wrote this essay for the Journal of Church and State when he was 80 years old--five years after retiring as the first executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Titled "The Meaning of Separation of Church and State in the First Amendment," it ...
Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion, By Dean M. Kelley. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. 184pp. The tendency in the life of American religious groups throughout the twentieth century until the 1960s was vitality and growth. "Growth" referred to ...
Transforming the Powers: Peace, Justice, and the Domination System.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Transforming the Powers: Peace, Justice, and the Domination System. Edited by Ray Gingerich and Ted Grimsrud. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2006. 227pp $20.00. This anthology pays tribute to Walter Wink and his pioneering trilogy on the Powers (Fortress Press, 1984-92), ...
States of Exile: Visions of Diaspora, Witness, and Return.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... States of Exile: Visions of Diaspora, Witness, and Return. By Alain Epp Weaver. Foreword by Daniel Boyarin. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2008. 215pp. $18.99 paper. Alain Epp Weaver's States of Exile argues for a political theology that understands diaspora and return as ...
Christian Political Ethics.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Christian Political Ethics. Edited by John A. Coleman. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008. 312 pp. $21.95 paper. Militant secularists like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchins condemn Christianity (and other of the world's great religions) as a dangerous threat to ...
Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspectives on Public Policy.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Healing for a Broken World. Christian Perspectives on Public Policy. By Steve Monsma. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008. 224pp. $16.99. This book is written by a Christian evangelical for fellow evangelicals, a powerful force in American society who make up, in the author's ...
According to the Scriptures? The Challenge of Using the Bible in Social, Moral and Political Questions.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... According to the Scriptures?: The Challenge of Using the Bible in Social, Moral and Political Questions. By J. W. Rogerson. London: Equinox, 2007. 109 pp. $24.95 paper. British biblical scholar J. W. Rogerson in According to the Scriptures?: The Challenge of Using the Bible in ...
Capitalism and Christianity, American Style.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. By William E. Connolly. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008. 192 pp. $74.95 cloth, $21.95 paper. Over the past several decades, William Connolly has developed a political theory rooted in changing identity and time. These ...
The Origins of Christian Anti-Internationalism: Conservative Evangelicals and the League of Nations.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... The Origins of Christian Anti-Internationalism: Conservative Evangelicals and the League of Nations. By Markku Ruotsila. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008. 246 pp. $49.95. Markku Ruotsila is an adjunct professor of American church history at the University of ...
The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict?(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary Cause of Violent Conflict? By Meic Pearse. Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter Varsity Press Books, 2007. 231pp. $18.95. Meic Pearse's The Gods of War, like Caesar's Gaul, seemingly falls into three parts. The introduction and first chapter ...
In the Name of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious Persecution.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... In the Name of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious Persecution. By Mary Jane Engh. Amherst, N. Y.: Prometheus Books, 2007. 235 pp. $25.00. Mary Jane Engh introduces In the Name of Heaven by promulgating the dearth of general histories of religious persecution. She concedes that the ...
The Political Origins of Religious Liberty.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... The Political Origins of Religious Liberty. By Anthony Gill. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 263 pp. $23.99. This complex and carefully argued work, by a political scientist at the University of Washington adopts a novel empirical approach to the origins of religious ...
Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. By Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008. $35.00. Na'im's book will interest those who want to follow the contestation raging in contemporary Muslim societies over the public ...
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. By John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed. New York: Gallup Press, 2007. 204pp. $22.95. Between 2001 and 2007 leading American independent polling group, Gallup, Inc., conducted the world's most extensive survey of ...
Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa.(Book review)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa. Edited by Terence O. Ranger. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 267pp. $99.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. Sub-Saharan Africa does not have many functioning democracies, but it has a large and growing number of evangelical ...