Theocracy in New England: The Nature and Meaning of the Holy Experiment in the Wilderness (original) (raw)
Related papers
Emory Law Journal , 1990
While they maintained firm and sometimes brutal religious establishments, the New England Puritans also helped cultivate a number of striking constitutional ideas that would prove influential for the United States after the American Revolution. Among the most novel were their ideas of social, political, and ecclesiastical covenants, rooted in biblical covenant thinking but prescient of later secular social and government contract theories. Also influential were their ideas of natural rights and liberties and their necessary protection by church and state authorities alike. But the Puritans' most prescient and enduring contribution lay in their theory of sin and the need to create constitutional safeguards against tyranny. This led them to develop early doctrines of separation of church and state, separation of powers within church and state, checks and balances amongst these powers, federalist layers of authority, codification of laws and limitations on equity, democratic election of religious and political officials, and the practice of congregational and town meetings between elections to render officials accountable to their constituents. The themes and contents of this early Article were greatly expanded and revised in the author's later book: The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
The American Constitution represents the culmination and the synthesis of a tradition that goes back to documents of political foundation created by mutual consent in the British colonies during the XVII century. From these documents derived the first constitutions of the thirteen states that formed the United States of America. The American constitutional tradition structured itself as a version of the English constitutional theory and practice, which derived much of its form and content from the Judeo-Christian tradition, as it had been revised and reinterpreted at the end of the XVI century and at the beginnings of the XVII century by Protestant radical groups and movements. This tradition has been modified, enriched and differentiated by the common colonial experiences, the influence of the Whig political theories, the European enlightenment, the English common law, the political events that led to the Revolution, and the problems connected to Independence. American Puritans considered their experience as a twofold mission of salvation: one to save the Old World, keeping alive a remnant of the true Church, and another to save them, building their Christian commonwealth in the New World. The formation of the nationstate certainly marked a turning point in the chronological development of the symbolism connected to the national community. At the foundation of the Republic, the original myths, elaborated by the puritan imagination, converged and complemented each other in a consistent public ideology, totally devoted to the research of the legitimacy and permanence of the new nation. After independence, the ideas and myths became “the elements of a collective faith in a new community.” With the adoption of the Constitution and the inauguration of George Washington as president, the new nation itself was invested with a special meaning and mission. Americans did not consider their new nation to be simply another nation among nations, but a providentially blessed entity charged to develop and maintain itself as the beacon of liberty and democracy to the world.
American Christianity through the Colonial Period [REL 4033] (Course Syllabus)
COURSE DESCRIPTION To understand how there came to be 20,ooo Christian denominations throughout the world one ought to turn Colonial America, where Christianity was amplified, diversified, and proliferated at an unprecedented rate within what became this free marketplace for religious options. Following a two week overview of the history of Christianity, from the Early Church to the European Reformation, the remainder of our time together will focus on Christianity in Colonial America therein assessing the origins, development and proliferation of Christian doctrine, practice, and social engagement. We will compare and contrast these diverse models of Christianity by tracing out some of the denominational, racial, social, intellectual, political and gendered inflected differences across these varied traditions. Topics explored in this course include: the dynamic relationship between the Church and State, from Constantine to the European Reformation and Colonial America; the polemical relationship between Catholics and Protestants in Colonial America; evangelization and missions to the Native Americans and the slaves; the relationship between experience, Scripture, tradition and reason; race and gender; the Democratization of Christianity and the American Revolution; theological teachings; and the First and Second Great Awakenings.
The Factors That Allowed the Development of Religious Freedom and Pluralism in Colonial America
2001
predominant form of religious organization in Western civilization has been the state church. In America nearly two hundred years ago, an alternative pattern began to emerge, characterized by freedom of conscience, constitutional separation of church and state, and voluntary support of religious activity.”1 Concerning this same subject Sidney Mead declares, “The importance of this change can hardly be overestimated. Professor W. E. Garrison has rightly called it one of ‘the two most profound revolutions which have occurred in the entire history of the church …’.”2 If the organization of the Christian church for one and a half millennia3 had been one of religious uniformity and coerced compliance to the state church, what happened in Colonial America that could cause a complete overthrow of that system and move toward a denominational form of church organization? It will be shown that the factors that allowed for the emergence of religious freedom and pluralism in early America inclu...
The Evolution of Religion-State Relations in America’s Colonial and Constitutional Periods
The first section explores the nature of religion-state relations throughout the Colonial period, with special attention paid to the founding and subsequent development of “exceptional” Puritan communities that had co-dependent religion-state relations. The second section, meanwhile, focuses on the Constitutional period. Specifically, of consequence here is how religion and government took on independent responsibilities, a demarcation that began during the Colonial period and was institutionalized at the Federal level by The First Amendment and the state level by The Fourteenth Amendment. Before this happened, America was arguably a Christian country, and the Government drew its legitimacy from God, but what emerged beginning in the Constitutional period was a secular government that had supremacy over religion as a source of societal influence.