This book furthers dialogue on the separation of church and state with an approach that emphasizes intellectual history and the constitutional theory that underlies American society. Mark Douglas McGarvie explains that the founding fathers of America considered the right of conscience to be an individual right, to be protected against governmental interference. While the religion clauses enunciated this right, its true protection occurred in the creation of separate public and private spheres. Religion and the churches were placed in the private sector. Yet, politically active Christians have intermittently mounted challenges to this bifurcation in calling for a greater public role for Christian faith and morality in American society. Both students and scholars will learn much from this intellectual history of law and religion that contextualizes a four-hundred-year-old ideological struggle.

This book furthers dialogue on the separation of church and state with an approach that emphasizes intellectual history and the constitutional theory that underlies American society. Mark Douglas McGarvie explains that the founding fathers of America considered the right of conscience to be an individual right, to be protected against governmental interference. While the religion clauses enunciated this right, its true protection occurred in the creation of separate public and private spheres. Religion and the churches were placed in the private sector. Yet, politically active Christians have intermittently mounted challenges to this bifurcation in calling for a greater public role for Christian faith and morality in American society. Both students and scholars will learn much from this intellectual history of law and religion that contextualizes a four-hundred-year-old ideological struggle.

Following the life of a charismatic woman committed to reform, The Pragmatic Ideal provides an introduction to the politics that dominated the early decades of the twentieth century, ideas that are the basis for much of today's progressive thought. As one of the "new women" who came of age during the Progressive era, Mary Field Parton, a close friend of Clarence Darrow, pursued social justice as a settlement house worker and as a leading writer on labor organizing, transforming pragmatic principles into action. Mark Douglas McGarvie shows how, following the upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, liberals such as Mary Field Parton turned to pragmatism, hoping to generate greater social awareness from constructions of values rooted in personal experiences instead of philosophical or religious truths. The Pragmatic Ideal reveals how Mary Field Parton sought to expand her rights as a woman while nonetheless denigrating rights as artificial legal impediments to social progress. The issues she faced and the options she considered find important currency in the political divisions confronting Americans a century later.

The United States' commitment to separation of church and state has defined the nation, from the structure of the schools and the welfare system to the nature of American politics and society. Many citizens mistakenly point to the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of religious practice, as the origin of this separation. Indeed, the Bill of Rights represents a crucial step toward the division of religious institutions from the affairs of the government. Yet, from the days of the early republic, the separation of church and state came about slowly, amid contentious legal, intellectual, and religious debates. In this timely study, Mark McGarvie documents America's transition from Christian communitarianism with its government-sponsored religious institutions to liberal republicanism with its insistence that church and government not interfere with one another. Surprisingly, for a half-century after the ratification of the Constitution, many early state governments continued to support religious organizations. Disestablishment nonetheless proceeded, gaining ever greater momentum as churches lost tax support and found that they could not enforce mandatory attendance laws. No longer public institutions with strong state backing, churches were reconstructed as private, voluntary associations. At the same time, the state took responsibility for poor relief, community record keeping, and a variety of other public services formerly left to the churches. Providing a close-up view of disestablishment as both a legal and an ideological process, McGarvie focuses on the efforts of three key states-New York, South Carolina, and New Hampshire-to disentangle church and state during the early national period. These case studies are particularly enlightening because a single state's disestablishment crisis helped change the law for the entire nation when New Hampshire's attempt to convert Dartmouth College into a secular state institution ended in a suit that eventually reached the Supreme Court. One Nation under Law is an important contribution to an ongoing, distinctly American debate.

Following the life of a charismatic woman committed to reform, The Pragmatic Ideal provides an introduction to the politics that dominated the early decades of the twentieth century, ideas that are the basis for much of today's progressive thought. As one of the "new women" who came of age during the Progressive era, Mary Field Parton, a close friend of Clarence Darrow, pursued social justice as a settlement house worker and as a leading writer on labor organizing, transforming pragmatic principles into action. Mark Douglas McGarvie shows how, following the upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, liberals such as Mary Field Parton turned to pragmatism, hoping to generate greater social awareness from constructions of values rooted in personal experiences instead of philosophical or religious truths. The Pragmatic Ideal reveals how Mary Field Parton sought to expand her rights as a woman while nonetheless denigrating rights as artificial legal impediments to social progress. The issues she faced and the options she considered find important currency in the political divisions confronting Americans a century later. 

The United States' commitment to separation of church and state has defined the nation, from the structure of the schools and the welfare system to the nature of American politics and society. Many citizens mistakenly point to the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of religious practice, as the origin of this separation. Indeed, the Bill of Rights represents a crucial step toward the division of religious institutions from the affairs of the government. Yet, from the days of the early republic, the separation of church and state came about slowly, amid contentious legal, intellectual, and religious debates. In this timely study, Mark McGarvie documents America's transition from Christian communitarianism with its government-sponsored religious institutions to liberal republicanism with its insistence that church and government not interfere with one another. Surprisingly, for a half-century after the ratification of the Constitution, many early state governments continued to support religious organizations. Disestablishment nonetheless proceeded, gaining ever greater momentum as churches lost tax support and found that they could not enforce mandatory attendance laws. No longer public institutions with strong state backing, churches were reconstructed as private, voluntary associations. At the same time, the state took responsibility for poor relief, community record keeping, and a variety of other public services formerly left to the churches. Providing a close-up view of disestablishment as both a legal and an ideological process, McGarvie focuses on the efforts of three key states—New York, South Carolina, and New Hampshire—to disentangle church and state during the early national period. These case studies are particularly enlightening because a single state's disestablishment crisis helped change the law for the entire nation when New Hampshire's attempt to convert Dartmouth College into a secular state institution ended in a suit that eventually reached the Supreme Court. One Nation under Law is an important contribution to an ongoing, distinctly American debate.