Law and Religion in American History

In Law and Religion in American History, Mark Douglas McGarvie undertakes the ambitious task of examining the role of religion in American society and, more specifically, the relationship between law and religion. His far-reaching scope of historical inquiry includes law, politics, philosophy, and religion. McGarvie explores how religious understandings and cultural attitudes, from the colonial period to the present, have influenced law and politics. Although McGarvie sets out to look broadly at the social role of religion, a significant focus of the book is on the First Amendment treatment of religious liberty—or freedom of conscience, as McGarvie puts it—and how courts have interpreted that treatment. McGarvie advocates a specific view of the First Amendment's free exercise and establishment clauses in particular, and of the nature of religious liberty in general. He does not label this view, but in the literature on the subject, it would be called secular liberal. McGarvie also seeks to show how Christian activists, believing that their religious beliefs have become marginalized within society, have throughout history tried to use both the law and the Constitution in an attempt to restructure society

Conscience · Constitution · First amendment · Free Exercise Clause · Freedom of Religion · Human rights · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Supreme court · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law