During the middle of the twentieth century, the religiously informed communitarianism that had guided the Supreme Court's decisions regarding the relationship between church and state was partially displaced by a new secular individualist discourse. In "The Rhetoric of Church and State," Frederick Mark Gedicks argues that this partial and incomplete shift is the key to understanding why the Court has failed--and continues today to fail--to provide a coherent doctrine on church/state separation. Gedicks suggests that the Supreme Court's inconsistent decisions mirror a divergence in American...
During the middle of the twentieth century, the religiously informed communitarianism that had guided the Supreme Court's decisions regarding the rela...
Religion has been deeply embedded in the history and culture of the United States since its birth. The last 20 years have seen a revival of religion which some have styled the Fourth Great Awakening. This latest turn to religion has uncovered and sharply defined a cultural paradox that has been evident for some time. Large numbers of Americans are deeply religious in their personal lives, yet American public life is largely empty of religious content and often hostile to religion, resulting in a fascinating and puzzling contradiction. This contradiction between secular public and religious...
Religion has been deeply embedded in the history and culture of the United States since its birth. The last 20 years have seen a revival of religio...
