The first freedoms : church and state in America to the passage of the First Amendment / Thomas J. Curry.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Is government forbidden to assist all religions equally, as the Supreme Court has held? Or does the First Amendment merely ban exclusive aid to one religion, as critics of the Court assert? The First Freedoms studies the church-state context of colonial and revolutionary America to present a bold new reading of the historical meaning of the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Synthesizing and interpreting a wealth of evidence from the founding of Virginia to the passage of the Bill of Rights, including everything published in America before 1791, Thomas Curry traces America's developing ideas on religious liberty and offers the most extensive investigation ever of the historical origins and background of the First Amendment's religion clauses.

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CHOICE Review

The debate continues concerning the meaning of the ``establishment clause'' of the First Amendment to the federal constitution. In this study, Curry ventures to determine the intent of the framers by establishing the perspective from which they operated. The first seven chapters trace the history of church and state relations, along with the concepts of liberty of conscience and establishment. The final chapter deals with the debate in Congress over the issue of church and state. Curry concludes that the framers, echoing the sentiments of the populace, intended religion to be free of government. Given the current importance of the religious issue in the US, this study should prove enlightening. Originally the author's dissertation, the book is scholarly yet not pedantic. It is extensively footnoted, but, regrettably, lacks a bibliography. Public and academic libraries serving upper-division undergraduates and above.-J.J. Fox Jr., Salem State College