In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

207 8 Rational Theology Thomas Jefferson and the Foundation of America’s Civil Religion Jeffrey Sikkenga I can never join Calvin in addressing his god....... The being described in his five points is not the God whom you and I acknolege [sic] and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world. —Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, April 11, 1823 I know in my heart that man is good That what is right will always eventually triumph And there is purpose and worth to each and every life —Gravestone of Ronald Reagan Thomas Jefferson’s “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” and the Theological Cornerstone of American Civil Religion Americans commonly believe that the United States was founded on the idea of religious liberty. Did not the early European settlers come to America in order to worship God as they saw fit? Do not the very first clauses of the First Amendment protect religious freedom? To the American mind (and perhaps the modern mind more generally), the free and equal way of life of democracy is impossible without this most fundamental of freedoms; the presence of religious liberty, we might say, ultimately defines whether a country is free. While acknowledging that America has been by no means historically free from religious prejudice against non-Christians (and non-Protestants), Americans take special pride in the country’s basic commitment to the idea that everyone should be able to believe what he or she wants in religious matters and practice that belief without coercion or interference from government or fellow citizens. If there is a modern democratic civil religion (especially in America), its theological cornerstone is the opinion that every person has a fundamental, natural right to freedom of religion that cannot be taken away or infringed. Of course, such belief in freedom of conscience was not always dominant , even in America. For generations before and during the Founding period, Americans generally embraced the idea of freedom of religion, but they believed that such freedom entailed only limited toleration for dissenters from the legally established view of Christianity or permitted government to require citizens to support Christian clergy. For them, freedom of religion was an important right, but for the sake of both healthy religion and politics, government could legally establish a church or least encourage religious practice and set the outer bounds of permissible religious opinion.1 Perhaps the most philosophically dramatic and politically influential public break from this view began with the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776 and culminated in the decade-long struggle to disestablish the Anglican Church in Virginia.2 While pushed by religious dissenters such as Presbyterians and Baptists, the fight was led philosophically by statesmen such as George Mason, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson.3 Jefferson’s 208 Jeffrey Sikkenga 1. According to Mark McGarvie, “[t]he symbiotic relationship between church and the civil order that had existed in Europe persisted throughout English America in the colonial era....... In 1774 nine of the thirteen colonies had legally established churches. De facto establishments existed in three of the others. All people within establishment colonies were taxed for the support of a church building and the salary of a clergyman. In those colonies in which law did not specifically provide for the legal toleration of dissenters, only the established church could incorporate or perform authorized civil functions such as marriage ceremonies” (Mark McGarvie, One Nation under Law: America’s Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004), 22, 41). 2. We should not neglect the importance of George Mason’s draft of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights as a forerunner to Jefferson’s bill. Robert Rutland argues that “[w]ords, phrases, and sentences copied from the committee draft of May 27, 1776, may be found in every Declaration of Rights adopted in America since May 1776, and in most of the other such declarations adopted elsewhere in the world,” including the French Declaration of Rights of 1789 (Robert Rutland, George Mason: Reluctant Statesman (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961), 67). He concludes that the document is “the grandfather of all the bills of rights. Not only is it one of the great state papers of the American Revolution, it is a milestone in the development of the worldwide Enlightenment” (ibid., 90). 3. For discussion of the political maneuverings of Mason, Jefferson, and Madison, and the shifting political alliances of various economic, regional, and religious groups, see Thomas E. Buckley, S.J...

Share