by Luis A. Silva
Steven Smith’s new book implies that it is still possible—though difficult—to recover what made the U.S. a land of free and flourishing belief.
Religious freedom is declining in the United States. If the history of freedom were graphed, this would be the lowest point in a curve since the 1960s, when the Supreme Court issued several momentous decisions on school prayer. Our level of religious freedom is falling, and all signs indicate that it will continue to do so.
In his new book, The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom,University of San Diego law professor Steven D. Smith notes this trend and explains its causes. In this sense, the book is pessimistic. Yet there is a hopeful note in the midst of this pessimism. According to Smith, the original genius of the United States, what he calls “the American settlement,” which used to protect religious freedom, has long been lost. But is it gone forever? Nothing lasts forever in this world, the author reminds us, including governments. But here’s the hopeful part: Smith argues that, although it will be difficult, it is still possible to recover what made the United States a land of free and flourishing belief.
The concept of the American settlement is central to the book. It is worth examining in detail because it reveals Smith’s intellectual penetration into the roots of the rise and decline of religious freedom in the United States. “The American settlement” is the name that Smith gives to the distinctively American version of religious freedom, under which, Smith writes:
A Provocative History
Departing from the standard history of religious freedom in the United States at critical points, Smith offers a refreshing account of the constitutional architecture of religious freedom and of the sources that inspire this interpretation. Many of the elements in this story will not be new to a reader familiar with the topic, but Smith assembles them masterfully, garnering new truths through his presentation.
Perhaps the most provocative aspect of Smith’s historical revision concerns the originality of the American experiment. According to Smith, the constitutional commitment to religious freedom was not a product of the Enlightenment born out of radical distrust for religion, as is widely believed. Rather, the American Constitution expresses continuity with a tradition that originated nearly 2,000 years ago when Christ said “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” In Smith’s words, “American religious freedom was not so much a repudiation of and departure from the Christian past as a retrieval and consolidation of that past.”
Two factors characterize the essentially Christian American settlement: the separation of church and state and the sacredness of conscience. The separation of church and state reflects Christ’s teaching on the two jurisdictions, one temporal (Caesar) and one spiritual (God, through the Church). Smith tells us that this Christian concept of dual jurisdiction “had the potential to support what Americans would later call a separation of church and state.”
Moreover, Christianity consecrated conscience with a dignity previously unknown to the pagan world. Because the faith that saves can only be confessed voluntarily, freedom is essential for the religion. Smith cites some eloquent words of Lactantius, advisor of Constantine and tutor to his children: “Liberty has chosen to dwell in religion. For nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion, and no one can be required to worship what he does not will to worship.” These words could very well be those of any of the founding fathers during the drafting process of the religion clauses of the Constitution.
...............
Religious freedom is declining in the United States. If the history of freedom were graphed, this would be the lowest point in a curve since the 1960s, when the Supreme Court issued several momentous decisions on school prayer. Our level of religious freedom is falling, and all signs indicate that it will continue to do so.
In his new book, The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom,University of San Diego law professor Steven D. Smith notes this trend and explains its causes. In this sense, the book is pessimistic. Yet there is a hopeful note in the midst of this pessimism. According to Smith, the original genius of the United States, what he calls “the American settlement,” which used to protect religious freedom, has long been lost. But is it gone forever? Nothing lasts forever in this world, the author reminds us, including governments. But here’s the hopeful part: Smith argues that, although it will be difficult, it is still possible to recover what made the United States a land of free and flourishing belief.
The concept of the American settlement is central to the book. It is worth examining in detail because it reveals Smith’s intellectual penetration into the roots of the rise and decline of religious freedom in the United States. “The American settlement” is the name that Smith gives to the distinctively American version of religious freedom, under which, Smith writes:
religious freedom expanded, the nation grew more religiously inclusive and the secular and religious perspectives often managed not only to coexist but also to collaborate in supporting a pluralistic but more or less united people.The American settlement is both a wildly provocative concept and an enlightening one. It is provocative because it tells a different story about the constitutional commitment to religious freedom, and it is enlightening because it illuminates the potential of the religion clauses of the First Amendment.
A Provocative History
Departing from the standard history of religious freedom in the United States at critical points, Smith offers a refreshing account of the constitutional architecture of religious freedom and of the sources that inspire this interpretation. Many of the elements in this story will not be new to a reader familiar with the topic, but Smith assembles them masterfully, garnering new truths through his presentation.
Perhaps the most provocative aspect of Smith’s historical revision concerns the originality of the American experiment. According to Smith, the constitutional commitment to religious freedom was not a product of the Enlightenment born out of radical distrust for religion, as is widely believed. Rather, the American Constitution expresses continuity with a tradition that originated nearly 2,000 years ago when Christ said “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” In Smith’s words, “American religious freedom was not so much a repudiation of and departure from the Christian past as a retrieval and consolidation of that past.”
Two factors characterize the essentially Christian American settlement: the separation of church and state and the sacredness of conscience. The separation of church and state reflects Christ’s teaching on the two jurisdictions, one temporal (Caesar) and one spiritual (God, through the Church). Smith tells us that this Christian concept of dual jurisdiction “had the potential to support what Americans would later call a separation of church and state.”
Moreover, Christianity consecrated conscience with a dignity previously unknown to the pagan world. Because the faith that saves can only be confessed voluntarily, freedom is essential for the religion. Smith cites some eloquent words of Lactantius, advisor of Constantine and tutor to his children: “Liberty has chosen to dwell in religion. For nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion, and no one can be required to worship what he does not will to worship.” These words could very well be those of any of the founding fathers during the drafting process of the religion clauses of the Constitution.
...............
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario