The Bible, the School, and the Constitution: The Clash that Shaped Modern Church-State Doctrine (review)

How does a diverse society transmit its moral values to future generations without relying on controversial religious doctrines? What interest does government have, and what role should it play, in the moral education of the young and impressionable? Green’s ambitious interdisciplinary endeavor chronicles the national debate that raged over religion’s relationship with public education during the seminal period of 1869 through 1876. The breadth of the debate routinely exceeded the actual discussions—“[t]he School Question bec[oming] a proxy for a debate over America’s cultural and religious identity” (8). For many, the outcome of the School Question would ultimately determine America’s fate, based on citizens’ “belief that the future of the Republic depended on the nation’s ability to transmit skills of democratic governance to current and future generations” (14).

The religio-political tensions that catalyzed America’s founding still persist, but the modern discussion of religion’s place in public education germinated during this post-bellum period. Although the School Question bifurcates into public funding of religious education and religious instruction in public schools, Green repeatedly illustrates how it defies simplistic categorization into two polarized camps inhabited by Catholics and Protestants, religious and nonreligious people, or conservatives and liberals. This exhaustively researched volume teases apart such basic binaries to expose the web of cultural, religious, historical, political, ethnic, and economic considerations and prejudices in which these discussions fermented.

The book is divided into six chapters, addressing “The Rise of Nonsectarian Public Education” (11–44), “The Development of the ‘No-Funding Principle’” (45–91), “The Cincinnati ‘Bible War’ of 1869–1873” (93–135), “‘The Amendmentists’” (137–177), “The Blaine Amendment” (179–223), and “The Legacy of the School Question” (225–257). The chapter titles’ discrete topics belie the breadth of issues covered. Green’s roughly chronological analysis of this post–Civil War period comprises various civic and clerical leaders, all three branches of government from the municipal to federal levels, and many voluntary groups that formed to defend their positions regarding the School Question when it hit close to home. By examining a mere slice of history, Green brings the entire historical loaf into view. His scrutiny of argumentative leaders, laws, legislatures, and leagues helps the reader to appreciate the nuances and contextual contingencies surrounding the School Question in discrete communities at particular times. Diverse religious adherents participating in this ongoing conversation had assorted views of the best way to respect or renounce governmentally recognized religion, whether by funding faith-affiliated political organizations, attempting to pass constitutional amendments, banning biblical readings or instruction in public schools, or sometimes resorting to outright violence.

In Green’s words, the School Question “remain[s] unresolved to this day. Even so, the period between 1869 and 1876 became the fulcrum of the controversy” (226). Green deftly demonstrates how this “period . . . would serve as the crucible of future church-state doctrine” (223).