Rediscovering America's Sacred Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America

By Barbara A. McGraw

Book Overview

Sees a way out of the contentious debates over the role of religion in American public life by looking back to the ideas of John Locke and the nation's Founders.

Returning to the ideas of John Locke and the Founders themselves, Barbara A. McGraw examines the debate about the role of religion in American public life and unravels the confounded rhetoric on all sides. She reveals that no group has been standing on proper ground and that all sides have misused terminology (religion/secular), dichotomies (public/private), and concepts (separation of church and state) in ways that have little relevance to the original intentions of the Founders. She rediscovers a theology underlying the founding documents of the nation that is neither anyone's particular religion nor one requiring religion. Instead, it justifies freedom of conscience for all and provides a two-tiered public forum-a civic public forum and a conscientious public forum-for the debate itself and the actions that debate inspires. America's Sacred Ground-this theology and its public forum-determines the meaning of freedom and the ways in which Americans can pursue "the good" good government, good communities, good families, good relations between individuals, and good individuals from a plurality of perspectives. By exploring our past, McGraw answers the critical question, Who are we as a people and what do we stand for?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791457060
• ISBN13: 9780791457061
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An important an provocative book on chuch and state relations

Here is an important and provocative book on church state relations, addressing today's polarized debate on America's moral foundation. The book is well written and well balanced, with both a historical and a contemporary section. McGraw writes for the "educated reader", and there are echoes of her work as a professor at Saint Mary's College in California. The primary question is this: what sort of political/religious framework did our Founder's intend to create? Part I is the excellent historical section which explores the intentions of the founding generation, with an especially good discussion on the "political theology" of John Locke and its influence on the Framers. Then McGraw points to two aspects of the Founders' views which might seem contradictory, but both of which must be affirmed. First, she argues that virtually all the founders were religious in outlook, and felt religion to be important both personally and culturally. But secondly, she argues, although they were religious in their outlook, they had no thought whatever of establishing a Christian America --- precisely because of their deeply held religious views regarding freedom of conscience. What they intended was a governmental system in which no religious (or other worldview) would dominate all others. Any society thus dominated cannot be a Good Society. In Part II McGraw enters into today's debate about the place of religion in the Public Square. Examining such writers as Thomas Flynn, M. Stanton Evans, Stephen Carter and John Rawls, she dissects the views of the secular left, the religious right, and the accomodationists. As McGraw sees it, America's foundational principle is simply this: since liberty and equality are derived from God, no one has a rightful claim to dominance. I highly recommend this book. It's needed by all in the current church/state debates who feel that their particular Truth should prevail ---which is all of us at times! Read and be challenged.