Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State / / Daniel Dreisbach.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Dreisbach, Daniel,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

No phrase in American letters has had a more profound influence on church-state law, policy, and discourse than Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation between church and state,” and few metaphors have provoked more passionate debate. Introduced in an 1802 letter to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptist Association, Jefferson’s “wall” is accepted by many Americans as a concise description of the U.S. Constitution’s church-state arrangement and conceived as a virtual rule of constitutional law. Despite the enormous influence of the “wall” metaphor, almost no scholarship has investigated the text of the Danbury letter, the context in which it was written, or Jefferson’s understanding of his famous phrase. Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State offers an in-depth examination of the origins, controversial uses, and competing interpretations of this powerful metaphor in law and public policy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The President, a Mammoth Cheese, and the “Wall of Separation” -- 3. “Sowing Useful Truths and Principles” -- 4. “What the Wall Separates” -- 5. Early References to a “Wall of Separation” -- 6. Creating “Effectual Barriers” -- 7. “Useful Truths and Principles . . . Germinate and Become Rooted” in the American Mind -- 8. Conclusion -- Appendices. Documents from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson -- Appendix 1. Proclamation Appointing a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, May 1774 -- Appendix 2. Address to the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Anne, 1774 -- Appendix 3. Bills Reported by the Committee of Revisors Appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1776, 18 June 1779 -- Appendix 4. Proclamation Appointing a Day of Publick and Solemn Thanksgiving and Prayer, November 1779 -- Appendix 5. Draft of “The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798,” November 1798 (excerpt) -- Appendix 6. Correspondence with the Danbury Baptist Association, 1801–1802 -- Appendix 7. Correspondence with the Citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts, January 1802 -- Appendix 8. Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1805 (excerpts) -- Appendix 9. Letter from Jefferson to the Reverend Samuel Miller, 23 January 1808 -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- About the Author