Journal of Church and State articles from March 2002

Journal of Church and State archives from March 2002

The Ten Commandments as public ritual. (Editorial)
March 22, 2002... America has had its share of crises lately. And in times of crisis, people typically look to religion for answers. In the wake of the tragedies at Columbine High School and other schools across America where students and teachers were gunned...

State and religion in the emerging Palestinian entity.
March 22, 2002... As long as the Palestinian entity existed only as a goal set forth in political slogans and to inspire armed straggles, the question of state and religion, which has been afflicting many an Arab/Muslim state, did not come to the fore as an...

The wisdom of serpents: why religious groups use secular language.
March 22, 2002... "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16 Civil religion, the use of religious symbolism and ceremony to promote secular political ends, has long been a field of...

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Christian century: World War II and the eclipse of the social gospel.
March 22, 2002... The onset of World War II fomented an unbridgeable cleavage within the ranks of liberal Protestantism in America. Charles Clayton Morrison, editor of The Christian Century, espoused a pacifist-internationalism rooted in a sense of historical...

Statutory exemptions for religious freedom.
March 22, 2002... Over the past three centuries, American colonies, state legislatures, and Congress have carved out many statutory exemptions to protect religious liberty. Far from being a judicial monopoly, the task of safeguarding religious beliefs is often...

Churches and states: the politics of accommodation.
March 22, 2002... The uniquely American debate over the "separation of church and state" is ongoing. This phrase, although never specified in the original Constitution nor in its amendments, has, nonetheless, been a widely accepted bedrock principle to guide the...

Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India.
March 22, 2002... By Corinne G. Dempsey. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 213 pp. np. Indian Christians are in a precarious political position. Although they constitute little more than 2 percent of the total population, they have been targeted for...

Privatization of the Christian Faith: Mission, Social Ethics and the South African Baptists.
March 22, 2002... By Louise Kretzschmar. Legon, Ghana: Asempa Publishers, 1998. 431 pp. np. Without a doubt, this book will be hailed as a landmark in academic discussions because of its boldness. The book is elegantly written and reads like a courtroom...

The Democracy of the Dead: Dewey, Confucius, and the Hope for Democracy in China.
March 22, 2002... By David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames. Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Co., 1999. 265 pp. $34.95. This work, by two preeminent sinologists, David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, whose studies in Chinese philosophy are well known and highly...

Catholic Politics in Europe: 1918-1945.
March 22, 2002... By Martin Conway. New York: Routledge, 1997. 118 pp. np. This wonderful little volume presents a lucid overview of Catholic politic during an especially troubled period of European history. Fairminded and balanced, Conway offers readers...

Confessions of an Interest Group: The Catholic Church and Political Parties in Europe.
March 22, 2002... By Carolyn M. Warner. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. 249 pp., bibliography, index. $17.95 paper. This is not a book for the church historian, even though it deals with ecclesiastical politics in France and Italy (and to...

Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England: 1558-1689.
March 22, 2002... By John Coffey. Harlow (U.K.): Longman, 2000. 244 pp. This book is the first survey of its subject published in English since W.K. Jordan's four-volume The Development of Religious Toleration in England, 1558-1660 appeared over sixty years...

Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England.
March 22, 2002... By Timothy Larsen. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999. np. This important book fills a significant chronological gap in the history of British church-state relations, for Timothy Larsen is the first modern historian to write systematically...

Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America.
March 22, 2002... By Andrew Murphy. University Park, Pa.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.337 pp. $45.00. Andrew Murphy provides an incisive critique of the assumption that the autonomy prized in liberalism has its genesis in the seventeenth...

Soldiers, Commissars, and Chaplains: Civil-Military Relations Since Cromwell.
March 22, 2002... By Dale R. Herspring. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. 247 pp. $29.95. Apparent similarities can hide fundamental differences. Such is the case with chaplains and their seeming opposites in totalitarian states' armies. The research...

Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enterprises Among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630-1692.
March 22, 2002... By Louise A. Breen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 292 pp. $45.00. Perry Miller's powerful vision of New England society, which projected a group of unified settlers gradually transformed by growing conflict and division, has...

A Republic of Righteousness: The Public Christianity of the Post-Revolutionary New England Clergy.
March 22, 2002... By Jonathan D. Sassi. New York: Oxford University Press 2001. 298 pp. $49.95. The New England colonial clergy believed that church and government stood side by side in the task of preserving the covenant between God and his chosen people....

The Universalist Movement in America: 1770-1880.
March 22, 2002... By Ann Lee Bressler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 204 pp. $35.00. Ann Lee Bressler has written the first cultural history of American Universalism. She begins in 1770, when John Murray preached the novel idea that an all-good...

Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement.
March 22, 2002... By Douglas Morgan. Knoxville, Tenn.: the University of Tennessee Press, 2001. 269 pp., np. cloth. Received wisdom portrays Seventh-day Adventism as historically unengaged in the public arena. There was no time for other concerns (Christ's...

Christian Millenarianism: From the Early Church to Waco.
March 22, 2002... Edited by Stephen Hunt. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2001. 270 pp. + index. $49.95 cloth; $21.95 paper. This timely collection of essays examines the role of millenarian thought in Christian history with a special emphasis...

Critical Social Theory: Prophetic Reason, Civil Society, and Christian Imagination.
March 22, 2002... By Gary M. Simpson. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2002. 178 pp. $14.00. Gary Simpson provides an overview of critical social theory as it developed in the work of Max Horkheimer and Jurgen Habermas. He traces Horkheimer's critical...

The Politics of Toleration in Modern Life.
March 22, 2002... Edited by Susan Mendus. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2000. 156 pp. $16.95. paper. This edited volume is a collection of the Annual Addresses (1988-1998) on the subject of toleration sponsored by the C. and J.B. Morrell Trust at the...

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Punishment.
March 22, 2002... By T. Richard Snyder. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001. xii + 157 pp. In this brief and eminently readable book, Richard Snyder argues that American society's rush to exact vengeance on convicted criminals--what he calls the "spirit of...

Toward a Just and Caring Society: Christian Responses to Poverty in America.
March 22, 2002... Edited by David P. Gushee. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1999. np. There has been an encouraging shift in evangelical thinking in recent years. For most of this century, Christians who spoke of justice, poverty, and social...

Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions.
March 22, 2002... By Daniel C. Maguire. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2001. 160 pp., $13.00. Controversial issues in religion are not new, but creative, inclusive, honest ways of dealing with them are. Catholic ethicist Daniel C. Maguire, president of...

Jews in American Politics.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Lanham, Md.: Rowan and Littlefield, 2001, 506 pp. $39.95. This collection of essays provides a sweeping look at both the experience and the influence of Jews in the American political arena. Ranging from the historical to the analytical,...

Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1999, 402 pp. np. The collected essays in this volume explore the frequently neglected phenomenon of religious experience in America's cities. Blending history, theology, and sociology, the...

Protestants in America.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: Oxford University Press, 20O0. 155 pp. Written by one of the foremost scholars of American evangelicalism, this book is one volume in Oxford's comprehensive "Religion in American Life" series. An efficient re-telling of the...

God for a Secular Society: The Public Relevance of Theology.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1999. 292 pp. np. In this fairly compact book, Moltmann surveys the theological landscape of the late twentieth century and the various ways theology has been employed to underwrite the modern...

Fools, Martyrs, Traitors: The Story of Martyrdom in the Western World.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1997. 429 pp., $19.95. In this engaging text, Smith uses the beliefs of well-known men and women to trace the fascinating thread of martyrdom through 2,500 years of human history. Smith's...

Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 122 pp. $9.95. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--better known as the Mormon Church--represents one of the very few religious movements that can truly claim to be American in origin. As...

The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1999. 260 pp. np. This fascinating study traces the slow migration of Catholic voters in the United States away from their traditional place in the Democratic fold and towards a new home in the...

Marriage and Divorce in the Thought of Martin Bucer.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... trans. John Vriend and Lyle D. Bierma. Kirksville, Mo.: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1999. 406 pp. np. The sixteenth-century German theologian Martin Bucer has gained notoriety over the years primarily for his seemingly...

The Politics of the Soul: Eric Voegelin on Religious Experience.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. 230 pp. np. This collection of essays represents the first scholarly effort to explore the relevance of Eric Voegelin's understanding of religious experience to contemporary political theory....

Kings and Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership, and Sacred Text in Biblical Narrative.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 210 pp. np. In the ten essays that comprise this volume, the author considers the significance of the religious and social functions of kings and prophets in the Old Testament. The difference between...

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. 366 pp. $35.00. A dexterous blend of scientific and church history, this book creatively explores the historic relationship between science and religion as seen from the perspective of the...

Christianity: Two Thousand Years.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 279 pp. np. This crisp, concise collection of essays provides a sweeping survey of the first two millennia of Christianity as told by some of Britain's leading scholars. Arranged chronologically, the...

Religious and Secular Reform in America: Ideas, Beliefs, and Social Change.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: New York University Press, 1999. 273 pp. np. Written primarily by European scholars, these twelve essays offer an interesting perspective on various reform movements in American history. Radical religion in New England, leisure,...

World Religions Today.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 562 pp. np. This new textbook looks at six major religious traditions--Buddhism, Christianity, East Asian religions, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism--in light of the ongoing process of globalization....

Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's Triumph of Religion at the Boston Public Library.(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999. 366 pp. np. John Singer Sargent, one of the most prominent artists in late nineteenth-century America, considered his decorative murals at the Boston Public Library to be his most...