Religion, Freedom, and United States Politics

Catalog description

Thomas Jefferson insisted on a ?wall of separation between Church & State? and the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government ?respecting an establishment of religion.? Yet, questions about how to understand religious freedom (both the freedom to practice religion and the freedom not to practice it) continue to raise questions in U.S. political life. This class explores the meaning of religious freedom in the United States, and wrestles with the tensions this freedom raises in our common life in a nation where people practice many different religious (i.e. ?religious pluralism?), or none at all. Students will explore America?s founding documents, the works of religious and secular thinkers on the subject, and historical and contemporary conflicts around religious freedom in the U.S.