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This is an account of the ideas about and public policies relating to the relationship between government and religion from the settlement of Virginia in 1607 to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, 1829–37. This book describes the impact and the relationship of various events, legislative, and judicial actions, including the English Toleration Act of 1689, the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists. Four principles were paramount in the American approach to government's relation to religion: the importance of religion to public welfare; the resulting desirability of government support of religion (within the limitations of political culture); liberty of conscience and voluntaryism; the requirement that religion be supported by free will offerings, not taxation. Hutson analyzes and describes the development and interplay of these principles, and considers the relevance of the concept of the separation of church and state during this period

The Garden and the Wilderness examines church and state in the colonial and early national periods up to the framing of the religion clauses of the First Amendment by the First Congress. Throughout, the book focuses on the relationship between religious establishments and free exercise

Study of the American relationship between church and state tends to focus either on the founding period or the modern era. Steven Green argues that a crucial development occurred during the 19th century: a "second disestablishment." By the early 1800s, formal, political disestablishment had occurred nationally and among the states. Yet America remained a Christian nation. In the 19th century, legal and educational reforms and a growing appreciation of the nation's religious diversity led to a second disestablishment. Green shows that the second disestablishment is the missing link between the Establishment Clause and the modern Supreme Court's Church/State decisions.

Study of the relationship between church & state in America tends to focus either on the founding period or the modern era. Steven Green argues that a crucial development occurred during the 19th century as legal & educational reforms & a growing appreciation of the nation's religious diversity led to a second disestablishment

In Separating Church and State, Steven K. Green, renowned for his scholarship on the separation of church and state, charts the career of the concept and helps us understand how it has fallen into disfavor today with many Americans. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson distilled a leading idea in the Early American Republic and wrote of a wall of separation between church and state. That metaphor, has come down from Jefferson to twenty-first century Americans through a long history of jurisprudence, political contestation, and cultural influence. Separating Church and State traces the development of the concept of the separation of church and state, and Supreme Court's application of it in the law. Green finds conservative criticisms of a separation of church and state overlook the strong historical and jurisprudential pedigree of the idea. Yet, arguing with liberal advocates of the doctrine, he notes that the idea remains fundamentally vague and thus open to loose interpretation in the courts. As such, the history of wall of separation is more a variable index of American attitudes toward the forces of religion and state. Indeed, Green argues that Supreme Court's use of the wall metaphor has never been essential to its rulings. The contemporary battle over the idea of a wall of separation has thus been a distraction from the real jurisprudential issues animating the contemporary courts.

Religious pluralism as the essential foundation of America's quest for unity and order / by Derek H. Davis -- Historical dimensions -- The founding era (1774-1797) and the constitutional provision for religion / by John F. Wilson -- Eighteenth-century religious liberty : the founding generation's Protestant derived understanding / by Barry Alan Shain -- Church and state in nineteenth-century America / by Steven K. Green -- Religious advocacy by American religious institutions : a history / by Melissa Rogers -- Constitutional dimensions -- Constitutional language and judicial interpretations of the free exercise clause / by Bette Novitt Evans -- The U.S. Supreme Court and non-First Amendment religion cases / by Ronald B. Flowers -- The meaning of the separation of church and state : competing views / by Daniel L. Dreisbach -- Managed pluralism : the emerging church-state model in the United States / by Nicholas Gvosdev -- Theological and philosophical dimensions -- Religious liberty and religious minorities in the United States / by Elizabeth A. Sewell -- Religious symbols and religious expression in the public square / by T. Jeremy Gunn -- Religious liberty as a democratic institution / by Ted G. Jelen -- Pursuit of the moral good and the church-state conundrum in the United States : the politics of sexual orientation beyond Lawrence / by Andrew R. Murphy and Caitlin Kerr -- Political dimensions -- Monitoring and surveillance of religious groups in the United States / by James T. Richardson and Thomas Robbins -- The U.S. Congress : protecting and accommodating religion / by Allen D. Hertzke -- The Christian Right and church-state issues / by Clyde Wilcox and Sam Potolicchio -- American religious liberty in international perspective / by John Witte, Jr. -- Sociological dimensions -- Supply-side changes in American religion : exploring the implications of church-state relations / by Roger Finke -- Peeking through Jefferson's wall : a sociological assessment of U.S. church-state relations / by N.J. Demerath III -- The role of civil religion in American society / by Richard V. Pierard -- Conclusion -- The interplay of law, religion, and politics in the United States / by Derek H. Davis

From the founding of Virginia to the passage of the Bill of Rights, the role of the First Amendment's religion clauses has never been clearly defined. A throrough examination of America's developing ideas on religious liberty, First Freedoms presents a bold new interpretation of the Church-State context of colonial and revolutionary America