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Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas - A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State (Paperback, New Ed)
Loot Price: R758
Discovery Miles 7 580
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Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas - A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State (Paperback, New Ed)
Series: Critical America
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Donate to Against Period Poverty
Total price: R778
Discovery Miles: 7 780
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Whether in the form of Christmas trees in town squares or prayer in
school, fierce disputes over the separation of church and state
have long bedeviled this country. Both decried and celebrated, this
principle is considered by many, for right or wrong, a defining
aspect of American national identity. Nearly all discussions
regarding the role of religion in American life build on two
dominant assumptions: first, the separation of church and state is
a constitutional principle that promotes democracy and equally
protects the religious freedom of all Americans, especially
religious outgroups; and second, this principle emerges as a
uniquely American contribution to political theory. In Please Don't
Wish Me a Merry Christmas, Stephen M. Feldman challenges both these
assumptions. He argues that the separation of church and state
primarily manifests and reinforces Christian domination in American
society. Furthermore, Feldman reveals that the separation of church
and state did not first arise in the United States. Rather, it has
slowly evolved as a political and religious development through
western history, beginning with the initial appearance of
Christianity as it contentiously separated from Judaism.In tracing
the historical roots of the separation of church and state within
the Western world, Feldman begins with the Roman Empire and names
Augustine as the first political theorist to suggest the idea.
Feldman next examines how the roles of church and state variously
merged and divided throughout history, during the Crusades, the
Italian Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the British Civil
War and Restoration, the early North American colonies,
nineteenth-century America, and up to the present day. In
challenging the dominant story of the separation of church and
state, Feldman interprets the development of Christian social power
vis--vis the state and religious minorities, particularly the
prototypical religious outgroup, Jews.
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