I How Firm a Foundation? 1 Blooming Confusion: Religious Equality in the "Age of Madison" 2 Religion, Democracy, and Autonomy: A Political Parable 3 Is a Theory of Religious Freedom Possible? II What Shall We Do? (or How the Supreme Court Can Stop Making Things 4 Unprincipl…
"Questions of religious freedom continue to excite passionate public debate. Proposals involving school prayer and the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools and courtrooms perennially spur controversy. But there is also a sense that the prevailing discourse is exhausted, th…
"Questions of religious freedom continue to excite passionate public debate. Proposals involving school prayer and the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools and courtrooms perennially spur controversy. But there is also a sense that the prevailing discourse is exhausted, th…
Reformation England 1480-1642 provides a clear and accessible narrative account of the English Reformation, explaining how historical interpretations of its major themes have changed and developed over the past few decades, where they currently stand - and where they seem likely…
"The book builds [an] ... argument suggesting that the Reformation in England was a long and protracted affair, with roots in the Middle Ages, that led ultimately to the outbreak of civil war in the 1640s. It examines the Reformation as a succession of political initiatives, a s…
Cast down: abjection in America, 1700-1850
"Derived from the Latin abiectus, literally meaning "thrown or cast down," "abjection" names the condition of being servile, wretched, or contemptible. In Western religious tradition, to be abject is to submit to bodily suffering or psychological mortification for the good of th…
Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called "providence"), Franklin became one of Philadelphia's most prominent leaders, a world recognized sc…
"Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called "providence"), Franklin became one of Philadelphia's most prominent leaders, a world recognized s…
This compelling biography interprets Franklin as the embodiment of Protestant attitudes toward print culture, urban life, science, intellectual life, and politics. It shows that Franklin should be included in the company of figures like Lincoln for whom Protestant convictions in…
"Kabbalah and the Founding of America explores the use of Jewish esoteric thought in colonial America by Quaker theologian George Keith, Puritan ministers Increase and Cotton Mather, the first Hebrew instructor at Harvard Judah Monis, and the seventh president of Yale Ezra Stile…