Rediscovering America's Sacred Ground

Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America

By Barbara A. McGraw

Subjects: American Studies
Series: SUNY series, Religion and American Public Life
Paperback : 9780791457061, 259 pages, April 2003
Hardcover : 9780791457054, 259 pages, April 2003

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

PROLOGUE

1. TOWARD A DEBATE ON COMMON GROUND

 

At the Crossroads of the Twenty-First Century
Roots of the Conflict
Original Intent and the Religion Clauses: At the Core of the Debate
Entering the Fray
On Looking Back to Rediscover America's Moral Foundations
A Few Definitions

 

Part I. Looking Back to Rediscover America's Sacred Ground

2. REDISCOVERING THE ROOTS OF AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND IN JOHN LOCKE

 

John Locke: Prophet of America
Locke's Political Theology: Locating the Sacred Center in Each Individual's Relationship with God
The Social Contract as Society's Sacred Ground
Aiming for the Kingdom of God Requires "Just Bounds" between Civil Government and Churches
Rediscovering the Individual as the Sole Authority over Conscience and the Authentic Religious Community as a Free and Voluntary Call to Conscience
Setting the "Just Bounds" between Individual Conscience's Moral Choice and the State
Rethinking the Private/Public Dichotomy in Locke's Political Theology and the "Public" Role of Religion
Rediscovering the Moral Ground of Locke's Political Theology
Distinguishing Locke's Reasonable Christianity from His Political Theology
Creating the Political Context for the Realization of the True and the Good

 

3. THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: ESTABLISHING AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND

 

Rediscovering John Locke in the Revolutionary Spirit
Rediscovering the Religious Roots of the American Political System
The States: Toward Government that Ensures Freedom of Conscience and Seeks to Promote a Good Society
The United States: Toward Government that Ensures Freedom of Conscience and Creates the Context for the Search for the True and the Good
Exploring the Theological Terrain of America's Sacred Ground
Comparing the Moral Terrain of America's Sacred Ground with the Moral Order of Overarching Worldview Approaches to Government
The Civic and Conscientious Morality of the Two-Tiered Public Forum
The Role of Religion in the Public Forum and in the Pursuit of the Good
America's Sacred Ground: The Foundation for Pluralism and Multiculturalism that Refutes the Claims of Moral Relativity
America's Sacred Ground as the Common Good: Where Religious Voices are Prominent and Truth Can Shift for Herself

 

Part II. Rooting the Contemporary Debate in Sacred Ground

4. TAKING SIDES AND LOOKING LEFT

 

Unraveling the Contemporary Debate
Embracing the Fears at the Extremes: Left and Right
Reconsidering the Secular Left from the Perspective of America's Sacred Ground
John Rawls: Compromising America's Sacred Ground with Public Reasons

 

5. LOOKING RIGHT

 

Reconsidering the Religious Right from the Perspective of America's Sacred Ground
Accommodation: Compromising America's Sacred Ground by Mediating the Extremes

 

6. GROUNDING THE DEBATE

 

Sifting through the Confusion in the Contemporary Debate
Reorienting the Debate to Aim for the Good

 

CONCLUSION: AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND: OUR CIVIC FAITH

Appendix A. A Few Definitions
Appendix B. Freedom of Conscience in Revolutionary Period Constitutions and Declarations of Rights
Appendix C. Drafts of the Religious Clauses Proposed in the Debates of the First Congress

Notes

Suggested Readings

Index

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.

Description

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?

Barbara A. McGraw, JD, PhD, is Professor of Social Ethics, Law and Public Life and Director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism at Saint Mary's College of California. She is coeditor (with Jo Renee Formicola) of Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics on America's Sacred Ground and coauthor (with Robert S. Ellwood) of Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions, Ninth Edition.