From Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, 1835

 

Commentary and articles from JMC fellows:

Christianity’s Impact on Western Philosophy

 

Nasser Behnegar, “Locke, Capitalism, and the Bible.” (Enlightenment and Secularism, Lexington Press, 2013)

Michael Breidenbach (co-author), “Aquinas on Tyranny, Resistance, and the End of Politics.” (Perspectives on Politics 44.1, 2015)

Nicholas Capaldi, “Catholic Metaphysics in the Wake of the Collapse of the Enlightenment Project.” (Proceedings of the Metaphysics for the Third Millennium Conference, Escuela Idente, 2001)

Clement Fatovic, “The Anti-Catholic Roots of Liberal and Republican Conceptions of Freedom in English Political Thought.” (Journal of the History of Ideas 66.1, January 2005)

Robert Faulkner, “Faiths of Our Modern Fathers: Bacon’s Progressive Hope and Locke’s Liberal Christianity.” (Resistance to Tyrants, Obedience to God: Reason, Religion, and Republicanism at the American Founding, Lexington Books, 2013)

Steven Forde, “Natural Law, Theology, and Morality in Locke.” (American Journal of Political Science 45.2, April 2001)

Nathaniel Gilmore (co-author), “Montesquieu’s Teaching on the Dangers of Extreme Correction: Japan, the Catholic Inquisition, and Moderation in The Spirit of the Laws.” (American Political Science Review 111.3, June 2017)

Aaron Herold, “‘The Chief Characteristical Mark of the True Church’: John Locke’s Theology of Toleration and His Case for Civil Religion.” (The Review of Politics 76.2, Spring 2014)

Robert Ingram, God in the Enlightenment. (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Robert Ingram (co-author), “Religion, Enlightenment and the Paradox of Innovation, c. 1650–1750.” (Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners?, Bloomsbury, 2016)

Veronica Roberts Ogle, “Idolatry as the Source of Injustice in Augustine’s De Ciuitate Dei.” (Studia Patristica 14, September 2017)

Veronica Roberts Ogle (editor), “Latreia and Idolatry: Augustine and the Quest for Right Relationship.” (Studia Patristica LXXXVIII 14, Peeters, 2017)

Veronica Roberts Ogle, “Sheathing the Sword: Augustine and the Good Judge.” (Journal of Religious Ethics 46.4, 2018)

Veronica Roberts Ogle, “Therapeutic Deception: Cicero and Augustine on the Myth of Philosophic Happiness.” (Augustinian Studies 50.1, 2019)

Thomas Pangle, “A Note on the Theoretical Foundation of the Just War Doctrine.” (The Thomist 43.3, July 1979)

Sandra Peart (co-author), “Who Are the Canters?’ The Coalition of Evangelical-Economic Egalitarians.” (History of Political Economy 35.4, Winter 2003)

Michael Promisel, “Truth, Lies, and Concealment: St. Augustine on Mendacious Political Thought.” (The Review of Politics 79.3, Summer 2017)

S. Adam Seagrave, “Cicero, Aquinas, and Contemporary Issues in Natural Law Theory.” (The Review of Metaphysics 62.3, March 2009)

John Scott (co-author), “Sin City: Augustine and Machiavelli’s Reordering of Rome.” (The Journal of Politics 73.3, July 2011)

James Stoner, “Magnanimity and Martyrdom: The Death and Life of Thomas More.” (Magnanimity and Statesmanship, Lexington Books, 2008)

Mark Valeri, “Religion, Discipline, and the Economy in Calvin’s Geneva.” (The Sixteenth Century Journal 28.1, Spring 1997)

Thomas Varacalli, “Coronaeus and the Relationship between Philosophy and Doctrine in Jean Bodin’s Colloquium.” (Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 20.3, Summer 2017)

Thomas Varacalli, “Thomas Aquinas, the Thomists, and the Consent of the Governed.” (History of Political Thought 39.3, Fall 2018)

John Warner (co-author), “Sin City: Augustine and Machiavelli’s Reordering of Rome.” (The Journal of Politics 73.3, July 2011)

Matthew Wright, “The Aim of Law and the Nature of Political Community: An Assessment of Finnis on Aquinas.” (American Journal of Jurisprudence 54.1, 2009)

Scott Yenor, “Hegel and John Paul II on Love.” (First Things, June 27, 2011)

Michael Zuckert, “The Fullness of Being: Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law.” (The Review of Politics 69.1, Winter 2007)

 

Christianity in Early America

 

Teresa Bejan, “‘The Bond of Civility’: Roger Williams on Toleration and its Limits.” (History of European Ideas 37.4, December 2011)

Teresa Bejan, “Evangelical Toleration.” (The Journal of Politics 77.4, October 2015)

Teresa Bejan, “‘When the Word of the Lord Runs Freely’: Roger Williams and Evangelical Toleration.” (The Lively Experiment: The Story of Religious Toleration in America, from Roger Williams to the Present, Rowman and Littlefield, 2015)

Nan Goodman, “I Hear No Things Laid to My Charge: Aurality in Anne Hutchinson’s Trial Transcript.” (Critical Analysis of Law 2.2, 2015)

Nan Goodman, “Mather’s Turkey: International Law and the Utopian Imagination in Seventeenth-Century America.” (Law and the Utopian Imagination, Stanford University Press, 2014)

Nan Goodman, “The Puritan Cosmopolis, A Covenantal View.” (American Literary History 27.1, Spring 2015)

Eliga Gould, “The Christianizing of British America.” (Missions and Empire, Oxford University Press, 2005)

Allen Guelzo (editor), Edwards In Our Time: Jonathan Edwards and the Shaping of American Religion. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999)

Allen Guelzo (editor), The New England Theology: From Jonathan Edwards to Edwards Amasa Park. (Baker Book House, 2006)

Robert Ingram, “Archbishop Thomas Secker, Anglican identity, and relations with foreign Protestants in the mid-eighteenth century.” (From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550–1750, Sussex Academic Press, 2001)

Robert Ingram, “Representing and Misrepresenting the History of Puritanism in Eighteenth-Century England.” (The Church on its Past: Studies in Church History 49, The Boydell Press, 2013)

Glenn Moots, “Early American History: Religious Exercise and Establishment.” (Starting Points, July 17, 2020)

Glenn Moots, Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology. (University of Missouri Press, 2010)

Glenn Moots, “The Protestant Roots of American Civil Religion.” (Humanitas XXIII.1&2, 2010)

Mark Valeri, “The Economic Thought of Jonathan Edwards.” (Church History 60.1, March 1991)

Mark Valeri, Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America. (Princeton University Press, 2010)

Mark Valeri, “Providence in the Life of John Hull: Puritanism and Commerce in Massachusetts Bay, 1650-1680.” (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 118, 2008)us

Mark Valeri, “Religious Discipline and the Market: Puritans and the Issue of Usury.” (William and Mary Quarterly 54.4, October 1997)

Mark Valeri, “Weber and Eighteenth-Century Religious Developments in America.” (Religion and the Marketplace in the United States, Oxford University Press, 2015)

Mark Valeri (editor), The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 17: Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733. (Yale University Press, 1999)

Jean Yarbrough, “New Hampshire: Puritanism and the Moral Foundations of America.” (Ratifying the Constitution, University Press of Kansas, 1989)

 

Christianity and the Founding

 

Michael Breidenbach, “Catholics and the First Amendment.” (Starting Points, July 19, 2020)

Timothy Haglund, “America’s Civic Christianity and Paul’s Solution.” (Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought, Sept-Oct. 2006)

Mark David Hall, Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth. (Thomas Nelson, 2019)

Mark David Hall, “Did America Have a Christian Founding?“ (First Principles Series, The Heritage Foundation, June 7, 2011)

Mark David Hall (editor), Faith and the Founders of the American Republic. (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Mark David Hall (editor), The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009)

Mark David Hall (editor), The Founders on God and Government. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004)

Mark David Hall, “James Wilson: Presbyterian, Anglican, Thomist, or Deist?: Does it Matter?” (The Founders on God and Government, Rowman and Littlefield, 2004)

Mark David Hall, “Religion and the American Founding.” (A History of the U.S. Political System: Ideas, Interests, and Institutions 1, ABC-Clio, 2010)

Mark David Hall, “Religious Liberty in the Founding Era: Lessons for Today.” (Faithful Lives: Christian Reflections on the World 2, 2017)

Mark David Hall, “Roger Sherman: An Old Puritan in a New Nation.” (The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life, University of Notre Dame Press, 2009)

Mark David Hall (editor), The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding. (Liberty Fund Press, 2009)

Mark David Hall, “Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos: The Influence of the Reformed Tradition in the American Founding.” (Faith and the Founders of the American Republic, Oxford University Press, 2014)

Mark David Hall (co-author), “Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America, Part 1.” (Unio cum Christo 3, 2017)

Mark David Hall (co-author), “Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America, Part 2.” (Unio cum Christo 4, 2018)

Jonathan Den Hartog (editor), Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833. (University of Missouri Press, 2019)

Peter McNamara, “Hamilton, Religion, and American Conservatism.” (Resistance to Tyrants, Obedience to God: Religion and Reason in the American Founding, Lexington Books, 2013)

Glenn Moots, “A ‘Half-Revolution’ or a Revolution Finally Completed? Protestant Theology’s Revolutionary Fulfillment in the American Revolution.” (Revolutions Finished and Unfinished: From Primal to Final, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “Conscience, Conformity, and Religious Diversity in the American Founding.” (Diversity, Conformity, and Conscience in Contemporary America, Lexington Books, 2019)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson. (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “The Place of Religion Among the American Founders.” (A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics, St. Augustine Press, 2013)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “Thomas Jefferson’s Philosophy of Religious Freedom: The Political Philosophy of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.” (The Crisis of Religious Liberty: Reflections from Law, History, and Catholic Social Thought, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)

Thomas Pangle, “Religion in the Thought of Some of the Leading American Founders.” (Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy 4.1, 1989)

Benjamin Park, “Benjamin Franklin, Richard Price, and the Division of Sacred and Secular in the Age of Revolutions.” (Benjamin Franklin’s Intellectual World, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012)

Benjamin Park, “The Revolutionary Roots of America’s Religious Nationalism.” (Religion & Politics, March 20, 2018)

John Ragosta, Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia’s Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution & Secured Religious Liberty. (Oxford University Press, 2010)

James Stoner, “Catholic Politics and Religious Liberty in America: The Carrolls of Maryland.” (The Founders on God and Government, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004)

James Stoner, “Christianity, the Common Law, and the Constitution.” (Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition, ISI Books, 1999)

Mark Valeri, Law and Providence in Joseph Bellamy’s New England: The Origins of the New Divinity in Revolutionary America. (Oxford University Press, 1994)

Mark Valeri, “The New Divinity and the American Revolution.” (William and Mary Quarterly 46.4, October 1989)

Thomas West, “The Transformation of Protestant Theology as a Condition of the American Revolution.” (Protestantism and the American Founding, University of Notre Dame Press, 2004)

Scott Yenor, “The Framers intended the nation to be based on Christian values.” (Debating the Issues: American Government and Politics, Kendall Hunt, 2005)

Michael Zuckert (editor), Protestantism and the American Founding. (Notre Dame University Press, 2004)

 

The Development of Christianity in American History

 

Jonathan Bean, “Catholics, Civil Rights, and the Holy Name.” (Ignatius Insight, August 17, 2009)

Martin Burke, “Catholicity and Civilization’: Catholics and the Capitalist Ethic in Nineteenth-Century America.” (Essays in Economic and Business History 17, 1999)

Samuel DeCanio, “Religion and 19th Century Voting Behavior: A New Look at Some Old Data.” (The Journal of Politics 69.2, May 2007)

Michael Douma, “Rediscovering Van Raalte’s Church History: Historical Consciousness at the Birth of Dutch American Religion.” (Calvin Theological Journal 49.1, 2014)

Michael Douma, “Rev. A.C. Van Raalte on Slavery.” (Origins, Historical Magazine of the Calvin College Archives 31.2, 2013)

Justin Dyer (co-author), “Rawlsian Public Reason and the Theological Framework of Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail.” (Politics and Religion 6.1, 2013)

David Gutterman, Prophetic Politics: Christian Social Movements and American Democracy. (Cornell University Press, 2005)

Allen Guelzo, Edwards on the Will: A Century of American Theological Debate, 1750-1850. (Wesleyan University Press, 1989)

Allen Guelzo, For the Union of Evangelical Christendom: The Irony of the Reformed Episcopalians, 1873-1930. (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994)

Mark David Hall, “Beyond Self-Interest: The Political Theory and Practice of Evangelical Women in Antebellum America.” (Journal of Church and State 44, Summer 2002)

Mark David Hall, “Catharine Beecher: America’s First Female Philosopher and Theologian.” (Fides et Historia 32, Winter 2000)

Mark David Hall (editor), Great Christian Jurists in American History. (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Benjamin Park, “Early Mormon Patriarchy and the Paradoxes of Democratic Religiosity in Jacksonian America.” (American Nineteenth Century History 14.2, Summer 2013)

Benjamin Park, “‘I Object to the Names Deism and Infidelity’: Theodore Parker and the Boundaries of Christianity in Antebellum America.” (Journal of Religion and Society 15.1, 2013)

Benjamin Park, “Joseph Smith’s Kingdom of God: The Council of Fifty and the Mormon Challenge to American Democracy.” (Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 87.4, December 2018)

Benjamin Park, “Mormons and domestic change.” (Christian Century, November 19, 2014)

Benjamin Park, “Theodore Parker and America’s Religious Nativism.” (Christian Century, June 29, 2016)

James Patterson, “’The Cross or the Double-Cross’: Roman Catholicism, Anti-Communism, and the Political Theology of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen.” (Perspectives on Political Science 45.1, Spring 2016)

Geoffrey Vaughan (editor), Leo Strauss and His Catholic Readers. (Catholic University of America Press, 2018)

Geoffrey Vaughan, “Wisdom and Folly: Reconsidering Leo Strauss on the Natural Law.” (Leo Strauss and His Catholic Readers, Catholic University of America Press, 2018)

Matthew Wright, “Natural Law, Civic Friendship, and Stanley Hauerwas’s Counter-Polis Thesis.” (Natural Law and Evangelical Political Thought, Lexington Books, 2013)

Michael Zuckert, “Lincoln and the Problem of Civil Religion.” (Lincoln’s American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives, Potomac Books, 2005)

Michael Zuckert, “The Peak of American Political Religion: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.” (The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Politics in the U.S., Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)

Michael Zuckert, “Providentialism and Politics: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address and the Problem of Democracy.” (Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy, University Press of Kansas, 2016)

 

Contemporary Religious-Political Issues

 

Lara Brown, “Republican Primary Shows Evangelicals’ Influence.” (New York Times, December 13, 2011)

Nicholas Capaldi, “A Catholic Perspective on Organ Sales.” (Christian Bioethics 6.2, 2000)

Nicholas Capaldi, “From the Profane to the Sacred: Why We Need to Retrieve Christian Bioethics.” (Christian Bioethics 1.1, March 1995)

Nicholas Capaldi, “How Philosophy & Theology have undermined Bioethics.” (Christian Bioethics 13.1, 2007)

Nicholas Capaldi, “The New Age, Christianity, and Bioethics.” (Christian Bioethics 8.3, 2002)

Nicholas Capaldi, “The Poverty of Catholic Social Thought on Economics.” (Proceedings Fifth World Conference on Metaphysics, Idente, 2012)

Richard Garnett, “Religious Schools and the Freedom of the Church.” (Law & Liberty, July 10, 2020)

David Gutterman, “Narrating Desire: The Gospel of Wealth in Christian America.” (Politics and the Religious Imagination, Routledge, 2010)

David Gutterman, “Prophet or Priest: The Politics of Rev. Jim Wallis.” (Radical Religion: Contemporary Perspectives on Religion and the Left, Lexington Books, 2010)

Mark David Hall, “The Little Sisters Win – For Now.” (Law & Liberty, July 13, 2020)

Mark David Hall, “Religious Liberty and Same-Sex Wedding Ceremonies.” (Christian Lawyer 11.2, December 2015)

Caleb Henry, “Francis and the Great Society.” (Journal of Church and State 60.1, Winter 2018)

Caleb Henry (co-author), “Whither Christian Higher Education? Future Trajectories.” (The University at a Crossroads: Assessing the Purpose, State, and Future of Christian Higher Education, American Enterprise Institute, 2017)

Caleb Henry (co-author), “Whither Christian Higher Education? Past and Present Challenges.” (The University at a Crossroads: Assessing the Purpose, State, and Future of Christian Higher Education, American Enterprise Institute, 2017)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “Messages from Above: Conflict and Convergence of Messages on the Catholic Vote from the Catholic Church Hierarchy.” (Politics & Religion 10.4, December 2017)

Mirya Holman (co-author), “The Paradox of Protestantism and Women in Elected Office in the United States.” (Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 29.1, 2007)

Andrew Lewis, “Abortion Politics and the Decline of the Separation of Church and State: The Southern Baptist Case.” (Politics & Religion 7.3, September 2014)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “Belonging without Belonging: Utilizing Evangelical Self-Identification to Analyze Political Attitudes and Preferences.” (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49.1, March 2010)

Andrew Lewis, “Learning the Value of Rights: Abortion Politics and the Liberalization of Evangelical Free Speech Advocacy.” (Politics & Religion 9.2, June 2016)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “Most People – and Perhaps Most Clergy – Don’t Want Political Endorsements in Church.” (FiveThirtyEight, February 3, 2017)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “No, Evangelicals are Not on Their Deathbed.” (ReligioninPublic.blog, September 11, 2017)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “Reexamining the Effect of Christian Denominational Affiliation on Death Penalty Support.” (Journal of Criminal Justice 38.5, September-October 2010)

Andrew Lewis, “Representing the Faithful in Legal Advocacy? Evaluating the Congruence in Baptist Church-State Advocacy.” (Politics & Policy 39.3, June 2011)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “Rights, Reflection, and Reciprocity: Implications of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate for Tolerance and the Political Process.” (Politics & Religion 9.3, 2016)

Andrew Lewis, The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics: How Abortion Transformed the Culture Wars. (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Andrew Lewis, “Staffing the Front Lines of the Culture War: Constituency Religious Effects on Assignment to the Senate Judiciary Committee.” (Congress & the Presidency 41.2, 2014)

Andrew Lewis (co-author), “When evangelical clergy oppose Trump, their flocks listen. But they’re not speaking up.” (The Washington Post, November 4, 2016)

William Luther, “The Economics Underlying the Ethics of Fiscal Stimuli.” (Journal of Lutheran Ethics 9.3, 2009)

Benjamin Lynerd, Republican Theology: The Civil Religion of American Evangelicals. (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Wilfred McClay, “Religion in Politics, Politics in Religion.” (Commentary 86.4, October 1988)

Thomas Merrill, “Distracted by Religion: On Doing Bioethics in Public.” (Perspectives on Political Science 38.2, 2009)

Thomas Merrill (editor), Human Dignity and Bioethics. (Notre Dame, 2009)

Glenn Moots, “One Protestant Tradition’s Interface with Austrian Economics: Christian Reconstruction as Critic and Ally.” (The Journal of Markets and Morality 9.1, Spring 2006)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “A Bad Aftertaste in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision.” (AmericanGreatness.com, June 9, 2018)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “Catholic Bishops Take on Obama.” (The Weekly Standard Online, April 23, 2012)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “Current Separation of Church and State Doctrine: Suppressing Public Displays of Faith.” (You Decide! 2006: Current Debates in American Politics, Pearson/Longman, 2005)

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “Justice Sotomayor Misses the Mark: Religious Non-Profits Should Prevail.” (Public Discourse, July 8, 2014)

Benjamin Park, “Kim Davis and the Anxieties of Christian America.” (Religion & Politics, September 16, 2015)

James Patterson, “The Vicar’s Revenge: The FDA, the New Regs, and Freedom up in Smoke.” (Library of Law and Liberty, August 17, 2016)

Stephen Presser, “Law, Christianity, and Adoption.” (The Morality of Adoption: Social-Psychological, Theological, and Legal Perspectives, Eerdmans, 2005)

John Ragosta, “Christian or Satanist displays? Keep them off gov’t land.” (Detroit Free Press, December 18, 2014)

John Ragosta (co-author), “Town Prayers: What does the Supreme Court mean by coercion?“ (Sojourners, May 6, 2014)

Rogers Smith, “An Almost Christian Nation? Constitutional Consequences of the Rise of Christian Conservatism.” (Evangelicals and Democracy in America, vol. 1: Religion and Society, Russell Sage Foundation, 2009)

Rogers Smith, “Secularism, Constitutionalism, and the Rise of Christian Conservatives in the US.” (Contesting Secularism: Comparative Perspectives, Ashgate Publishing Co., 2013)

James Stoner, “Common Law and Constitutionalism in the Abortion Case.” (The Review of Politics 55.3, Summer 1993)

Diana Thomas (co-author), “Bootleggers, Baptists and Political Entrepreneurs: Key Players in the Rational and Morality Play of Regulatory Politics.” (The Independent Review 15.3, 2010)

Geoffrey Vaughan, “A New Translation and an Old Fight.” (First Things: On the Square, October 6, 2011)

Scott Waller (co-author), “Evangelical Strength and the Representation of Women and Gays.” (Evangelicals and Democracy in America: Religion and Society, Russell Sage Foundation, 2009)

Jonathan Yudelman, “The Christian Theologian of Zion: Fr. Marcel-Jacques Dubois, Israel’s Ardent Admirer and Passionate Critic.” (First Things, February 2014)

 

*If you are a JMC fellow who’s published on Christian political thought or Christianity in America, and would like your work included here, send it to us at academics@gojmc.org.

 

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