Religion and the State: Europe and North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

(Hardback)

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The historiography of church-state relations in America and Europe remains a live cultural, religious, and political issue on both sides of the Atlantic. Even more, current political invocations of history illuminate the need for a thoroughly trans-Atlantic approach to the history of church-state relations in the modern West. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the formative period for modern church-states relations we see vividly the complex interrelationship of developments from England, France, and America. Ever since, historians and political figures have compared the European and American efforts to discern the proper role of religion in government and government in religion. This work is an effort to illuminate that role or at the very least to bring to light the innumerable ways in which such roles were formed.

Reviews

A significant range of essays by an impressive array of scholars. This book is attentive to the ironic interplay of religious and secular forces during what could be called the founding era of liberal democracy. -- Barry Hankins, professor of history and church-state studies, Baylor University

Author Bio

Joshua B. Stein has taught at Roger Williams University since 1969. He received his PhD from St. Louis University in history and A.M. in Religious Studies from Brown University. His most recent book is Commentary on the Constitution from Plato to Rousseau (Lexington Books, 2011). Currently, he is working on a comparative study of the literature of the First World War and the Iliad.

Sargon G. Donabed is Assistant Professor at Roger Williams University, where he teaches Middle Eastern history and religious studies. He serves on the advisory board of the journal Chronos, published by the University of Balamand in Lebanon. His work has been published in journals such as Folklore and National Identities. He is a recipient of The American Academic Research Institute Iraq (TAARII) grant for his work on Assyrian folklore of Iraq and is the co-editor of The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence (2012).