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The Religious Roots of the First Amendment: Dissenting Protestants and the Separation of Church and State, by Nicholas P. Miller
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Traditional understandings of the genesis of the separation of church and state rest on assumptions about "Enlightenment" and the republican ethos of citizenship. In The Religious Roots of the First Amendment, Nicholas P. Miller does not seek to dislodge that interpretation but to augment and enrich it by recovering its cultural and discursive religious contexts--specifically the discourse of Protestant dissent. He argues that commitments by certain dissenting Protestants to the right of private judgment in matters of Biblical interpretation, an outgrowth of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, helped promote religious disestablishment in the early modern West.
This movement climaxed in the disestablishment of religion in the early American colonies and nation. Miller identifies a continuous strand of this religious thought from the Protestant Reformation, across Europe, through the English Reformation, Civil War, and Restoration, into the American colonies. He examines seven key thinkers who played a major role in the development of this religious trajectory as it came to fruition in American political and legal history: William Penn, John Locke, Elisha Williams, Isaac Backus, William Livingston, John Witherspoon, and James Madison.
Miller shows that the separation of church and state can be read, most persuasively, as the triumph of a particular strand of Protestant nonconformity-that which stretched back to the Puritan separatist and the Restoration sects, rather than to those, like Presbyterians, who sought to replace the "wrong" church establishment with their own, "right" one. The Religious Roots of the First Amendment contributes powerfully to the current trend among some historians to rescue the eighteenth-century clergymen and religious controversialists from the enormous condescension of posterity.
- Sales Rank: #635514 in Books
- Published on: 2012-06-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.40" h x 1.00" w x 9.30" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
Review
Miller's tracing of the intellectual threads, strings, and ropes of Protestant dissenting thought demonstrates an impressive familiarity with history and theology, and his book is a valuable historic and intellectual review of the influence of the right of private judgment on separation of church and state.� John Ragosta, American Historical Review.
It is always a joy to read a book that asserts as one of its major arguments that "ideas and beliefs do matter and that they often explain why people act as they do" and that "religious reasons should be accepted as valid" explanations of choice and behavior. Mark McGarvie, Journal of American History
Miller's volume . . . deserves a place on the shelf of all interested in the development of religious liberty in the Anglo-American tradition.� Andrew Murphy, Journal of American Studies
Miller is surely correct that Protestant dissenters, such as the Baptists and the Quakers, have not been duly credited for their intellectual contributions to the development of religious liberty, and he effectively marshals compelling evidence to support his thesis. This volume is a welcome addition to the literature on the pursuit of religious liberty in America.� Daniel Dreisbach, The Historian.
"There is compelling reason to keep the founders' Enlightenment principles at the forefront of First Amendment history... Miller's excellent study reminds us... that a dominant Protestant culture processed them on its own terms."
--hurch History
"[A]ttorney and church history professor Nicholas P. Miller argues that religious thought played a much more important role in the eventual development of the religion clauses of the First Amendment than previously recognized."
--Baptist History & Heritage
"Professor Miller's sweeping study makes a compelling case for restoring theology to a prominent place in the complex web of social, political, and intellectual factors contributing to American church-state thinking. Too often, modern scholarship has assumed that the rights of conscience sprung primarily from the Enlightenment, and Professor Miller's impressively clear analysis reminds us that we must take theology seriously if we seek to take the historical actors themselves seriously."--Donald Drakeman, author of Church, State, and Original Intent
"Nicholas Miller carefully and persuasively demonstrates that many of the most ardent and effective American advocates of the disestablishment of religion were people of faith. These Americans argued that government does faith no favors when it seeks to use civil power to advance religion, and that all people must have the liberty to choose or reject God, or faith commitments are meaningless. Miller is exactly right to suggest that it is long past time for us to give the religious case for church-state separation and religious liberty its due."--Melissa Rogers, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School
"Nicholas P. Miller's splendid survey of the distinctly Protestant concept of the right of private judgment makes a major contribution to the debate over the religious origins of the First Amendment. The author traces the idea of the sacred freedom of an individual's conscience through an array of pivotal thinkers and offers compelling evidence that the concept contributed to the understanding of James Madison, a leading framer of the separation clause of the Constitution."--James E. Bradley, Geoffrey W. Bromiley Professor of Church History, Fuller Seminary
"The Religious Roots of the First Amendment provides a needed counterbalance to the emphasis on the secular origins of American religious liberty. The author promises to take religion seriously and he fulfills his promise. Especially important is his restoration of William Penn to central importance in the emergence of American religious liberty."--Thomas J. Curry, author of Farewell to Christendom: The Future of Church and State in America
About the Author
Associate Professor of Church History at Andrews University Seminary and Director of the Andrews University International Religious Liberty Institute, Dr. Miller has a JD from Columbia University and a PhD in American Religious History from the University of Notre Dame.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent, Excellent Book!
By Paul D.
I have never read such a comprehensive book tracing the role of dissenting Protestant thought in connection with the foundation of religious freedom in the establishment of America. An absolutely excellent book!
What's inside:
It is easy in nature to consider the beauty and majesty of some ancient tree. Often we may observe its lush foliage and rugged bark. At times it may show signs of wear and abuse as the hostile forces of nature batter its stately frame. And yet how often do we take time to consider the vast root system that enables it to stand - undaunted, unmoved, and solid, amidst the fiercest storm. If religious liberty as found in our first amendment is that tree, in his book "The Religious Roots of the First Amendment" Nicholas Miller delves into the roots upon which that tree stands. These are roots that go back in history and time, which were passed on from generation to generation, and which Miller aptly argues formed the foundation behind much of the dissenting Protestant thought that found great influence among the early American colonies. It was this strain of thought that lead to the drafting of our constitution and the first amendment itself.
At the outset Miller takes us back to the founding of Protestantism. Here we find ourselves at the Diet of Speyer where the term "Protestant" first found its birth. Here also is where the Protestant reform movement not only became recognized as people who believed in justification by grace alone, but also in the right for every individual to interpret scripture for himself. It is this golden strand of thought that Miller traces down through the centuries leading up to the founding of our nation.
Beginning with Luther these ideas of religious freedom were promoted by word and writing, and spread quickly throughout the Protestant realm. Soon the Anabaptist movement took up the cause and along with Luther's writings brought these thoughts into the Netherlands where they had a much greater influence than in other European countries. Though the Anabaptist movement may have been small the influence they had was significant considering that a number of prominent men in history had connections in the Netherlands including John Lock, William Pen, and many early English Baptists.
From here Miller not only traces the worlds of Lock and Penn, but he also delves into the lives of Elisha Williams, Isaac Backus, William Livingston, John Witherspoon, and finally James Madison. With each person we find the ideas of religious freedom and the individual right and duty to privately interpret scripture surfacing over and over again. But it is no coincidence that brought these men to similar conclusions. Miller takes us into the history of their lives, the connections they had with other prominent men advancing the same cause, and at times even into the books held in their personal libraries. As the stories of their lives unfold the evidence makes it overwhelmingly clear that the messages and writings they shared were not so much original ideas, founded in their own minds, but that each built in his own way on the golden strand of dissenting Protestant thought that went all the way back to Luther.
But in the lives of Witherspoon and Madison, Miller takes it one step further showing how these thoughts on religious freedom were taken from the individual to the national level. While it is clear that dissenting Protestant thoughts were gaining influence over time in the American colonies, we finally see proof of their influence in the drafting of a new national Presbyterian constitution as well as the signing of our own American constitution. Both of these documents show clearly how the ideas regarding the separation of church and state (an outflow from the understanding that every man has the right to privately interpret scripture and worship God as his conscience dictates) took hold in early America on a national scale. These writings also give credence to Miller's general argument - that religious thought and belief did indeed play a role in the disestablishment of religion in America.
While many may put forth the case that our founding fathers made the decision for the disestablishment of religion out of mere pragmatic reasons stemming from a pluralistic society and an increase in Enlightenment thought, in his book Miller makes a strong argument to reconsider that conclusion. While he does not deny that pragmatism, pluralism, and Enlightenment thinking definitely played their roles in the decisions made, his careful and detailed research brings into light a deep root of dissenting religious thought that had great influence not only on many leading men, but also on society in general. Interestingly, it is the principles found in this dissenting strand of Protestant thought that finally made it into our constitution and first amendment, as well as into the major Protestant churches of the day. Over all, his is a compelling argument based on no little historical data.
And now, what about the place of the church and state in today's society? Where have we come from and to where are we heading? Will the tree of religious freedom continue to stand the tests of fierce winds, storms, lightning and rain? In conclusion Miller outlines three models of church-state relations: a medieval model, the dissenting protestant model, and finally what he would call a skeptical or secular model. With the majority of our society pushing back and forth between tendencies to the medieval and secular models - perhaps there is no better time than now to delve into the religious roots upon which the freedoms of our country were founded. In light of this, I have read no better exposition on the subject than Miller's "Religious Roots of the First Amendment".
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Good Roots Support Strong Trunks and Good Fruit
By The Ethics Scholar
Update 2015: I continue to use this book in understanding religious liberty and the role of democracy and freedom in the US culture. It continues to present the best foundational understanding of the dynamics of religion in American public life.
Original Review: This book traces the powerful role of "dissenting" Protestant thinking on the cultural shift in Colonial America that gave birth to the First Amendment--not only as a legal statement but also as a lived experience. Dr. Miller carefully showed how and why the America experience turned out differently from the European church-state structure, a structure that was framing some practices of Colonies but was being resisted on multiple fronts by some religious groups and key Colonial leaders. He traces ideas on scriptural interpretation and rights of private judgment from Luther to late Colonial theologians and shows that biblical understanding played a crucial role in opening the Colonialists to the liberty championed in the First Amendment. His convincing arguments will both reassure and caution those who want to claim a Protestant birthright for America. He ends the book with possible implications for his reading of history for issues facing American religious liberty today.
I teach at Dr. Miller's university and consider him a close friend. So when I learned about his book, I bought the Kindle version with a plan to read it on my family vacation to New England. My family planned to visit places of freedom mentioned in their U.S. history books. I finished the book on the trip and found it very insightful in helping me appreciate the rich foundation of the theological and religio-cultural influences of American founding ideas of freedom. My 4th of July celebrations will never be the same. I have a deep realization that the birth of freedom in the United States was a wonderful coalescing of great theology, careful political planning, and wise views of human nature.
I teach and write in educational leadership and applied ethics and also had an interest in understanding what Founding ideas might inform our current debates on creation, bible reading and prayer in public schools. The book created a useful frame for understanding separation of church and state. I plan to use it with my students. I found many ideas useful for my own thinking about not only religion in public education and civic life, but the importance of creating classrooms and schools where the true basis of liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment are protected.
At first, I thought the book's heavy use of historical scholarship with legal analysis would be either too tedious our too challenging. However, I found the writing and logic easy to follow and the arguments clearly stated. I believe Dr. Miller's training in law (JD from Columbia) and American church history (PhD from Univ of Notre Dame) blend well to give his historical review a more direct logic than some history books have. It read as a legal defense of an historical perspective. This direct and explicit style may bother some historians as being too narrow as he moves through events, writers, and relationships with a quick pace and purpose that doesn't meander on interesting historical tidbits or side trips. His evidenced-based approach to bolstering his arguments may not be welcomed by all scholars but I found it useful to know what his view of history was and trace the evidence he offered to support that view. Here is a lawyer who writes history more directly than other historians, but he is a historian who write legal scholarship with attention to the social-cultural and religious constructs of law. As such, it is readable and both scholar and general non-fiction readers should gain from its clarity of arguments. These arguments should find detractors on both the right and the left that may not like his fair-minded interpretation of the religious--i.e. Protestant--roots of American freedom. For that reasons, this may make a useful book to create important dialogue about religious liberty during this Presidential election year.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Insightful telling of how dissenting protestants contributed to our religous freedom
By Reed
I was surprised at how engaging and relevant this history was to my thinking about contemporary issues in religious freedom. Understanding the role of dissenting Protestants in the disestablishment of religion in America has helped to clarify and shape my thinking. The book is well researched, well written, and a great read!
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