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America's Best Idea

The Separation of Church and State

Author Randall Balmer On Tour
Narrator Randall Balmer On Tour
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Pushkin Press | Steerforth
On sale Jun 24, 2025 | 3 Hours and 41 Minutes | 9781586424305
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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A historian and ordained Episcopal priest offers everything you need to know for shaping and defending your own beliefs on the role of religion in American life

Filled with stories from America's struggle for religious freedom most readers have never heard before and perfect for fans of Jesus and John Wayne and On Tyranny

The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution codified the principle that government should play no role in favoring or supporting any religion, while allowing free exercise of all religions (including unbelief). More than 200 years later, the results from this experiment are overwhelming: The separation of church and state has shielded the government from religious factionalism, and the United States boasts a diverse religious culture unmatched in the world.

But changes have been taking place at an accelerating pace in recent years. The current Supreme Court has shifted away from excluding the influence and practice of religion at public institutions and in our laws and policies, and moved dramatically toward protecting the inclusion and promotion of religion in publicly funded undertakings.

Moreover, adherents to a Christian Nationalism ideology have grown more vocal and emboldened, and are increasingly moving into positions of power.

Randall Balmer, one of the premier historians of religion in America, reviews both the history of the separation of church and state and various attempts to undermine that wall. Despite the fact that the 1st Amendment and the separation of church and state has served the nation remarkably well, he argues, its future is by no means assured.
Randall Balmer (Ph.D., Princeton University), a prize-winning historian, Emmy Award nominee and ordained Episcopal priest, is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. He was professor of American religious history at Columbia University for twenty-seven years, and he has been a visiting professor at Princeton, Yale, Drew, Emory, and Northwestern universities and in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Evangelicalism in America and Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fifth edition, was made into a three-part series for PBS. He is writing and will host his third PBS documentary, a history of the Orthodox Church in Alaska. His commentaries about religion in America appear in newspapers across the country. View titles by Randall Balmer
C O N T E N T S

Preface
1. Transatlantic Visionaries
2. The Flushing Remonstrance, William Livingston, and King’s College
3. Forging the First Amendment
4. George Washington and Divine Providence
5. John Adams and the Treaty of Tripoli
6. James Madison and the Baptists
7. Thomas Jefferson, the First Amendment, and the Mammoth Cheese
8. Disestablishment in Connecticut
9. Designating the United States as a “Christian Nation”
10. School Wars and the Blaine Amendments
11. Mormons and the “Divine Origins” of the Constitution
12. The Johnson Amendment and the First Amendment
13. John F. Kennedy and School Prayer
14. “Soul Liberty,” Roy’s Rock, and the Need for More Baptists
15. The Battle Cry of “Religious Freedom”
16. The Case Against Christian Nationalism
Afterword
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author

About

A historian and ordained Episcopal priest offers everything you need to know for shaping and defending your own beliefs on the role of religion in American life

Filled with stories from America's struggle for religious freedom most readers have never heard before and perfect for fans of Jesus and John Wayne and On Tyranny

The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution codified the principle that government should play no role in favoring or supporting any religion, while allowing free exercise of all religions (including unbelief). More than 200 years later, the results from this experiment are overwhelming: The separation of church and state has shielded the government from religious factionalism, and the United States boasts a diverse religious culture unmatched in the world.

But changes have been taking place at an accelerating pace in recent years. The current Supreme Court has shifted away from excluding the influence and practice of religion at public institutions and in our laws and policies, and moved dramatically toward protecting the inclusion and promotion of religion in publicly funded undertakings.

Moreover, adherents to a Christian Nationalism ideology have grown more vocal and emboldened, and are increasingly moving into positions of power.

Randall Balmer, one of the premier historians of religion in America, reviews both the history of the separation of church and state and various attempts to undermine that wall. Despite the fact that the 1st Amendment and the separation of church and state has served the nation remarkably well, he argues, its future is by no means assured.

Author

Randall Balmer (Ph.D., Princeton University), a prize-winning historian, Emmy Award nominee and ordained Episcopal priest, is the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. He was professor of American religious history at Columbia University for twenty-seven years, and he has been a visiting professor at Princeton, Yale, Drew, Emory, and Northwestern universities and in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Evangelicalism in America and Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fifth edition, was made into a three-part series for PBS. He is writing and will host his third PBS documentary, a history of the Orthodox Church in Alaska. His commentaries about religion in America appear in newspapers across the country. View titles by Randall Balmer

Table of Contents

C O N T E N T S

Preface
1. Transatlantic Visionaries
2. The Flushing Remonstrance, William Livingston, and King’s College
3. Forging the First Amendment
4. George Washington and Divine Providence
5. John Adams and the Treaty of Tripoli
6. James Madison and the Baptists
7. Thomas Jefferson, the First Amendment, and the Mammoth Cheese
8. Disestablishment in Connecticut
9. Designating the United States as a “Christian Nation”
10. School Wars and the Blaine Amendments
11. Mormons and the “Divine Origins” of the Constitution
12. The Johnson Amendment and the First Amendment
13. John F. Kennedy and School Prayer
14. “Soul Liberty,” Roy’s Rock, and the Need for More Baptists
15. The Battle Cry of “Religious Freedom”
16. The Case Against Christian Nationalism
Afterword
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author

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