The Religion-Supported State
Piety and Politics in Early National New England
Abstract
Between 1776 and 1850, the people, politicians, and clergy of New England transformed the relationship between church and state. They did not simply replace their religious establishments with voluntary churches and organizations. Instead, as they collided over disestablishment, Sunday laws, and antislavery, they built the foundation of what the author describes as a religion-supported state. Religious tolerance and pluralism coexisted in the religion-supported state with religious anxiety and controversy. Questions of religious liberty were shaped by public debates among evangelicals, Unitarians, Universalists, deists, and others about the moral implications of religious truth and error. The author traces the shifting, situational political alliances they constructed to protect the moral core of their competing truths. New England's religion-supported state still resonates in the United States in the twenty-first century.
Schlagworte
New England religion disestablishment religion and politics religious freedom religious liberty sabbatarianism church and state antislavery- 1–20 Introduction 1–20
- 93–116 Chapter 4: The Politics of Moral Reasoning: Heaven and Hell and the Morality In-Between 93–116
- 185–212 Chapter 8: The Sunday Police: Sabbatarians, Anti-Sabbatarians, and Voluntary Religion 185–212
- 213–240 Chapter 9: The Antislavery Dilemma: The Moral Crisis of the Religion-Supported State 213–240
- 241–250 Epilogue 241–250
- 251–270 Bibliography 251–270
- 271–278 Index 271–278
- 279–280 About the Author 279–280