Brian63

I am interested in learning a lot more about church/state separation issues and such (as a result of this pledge controversy), and am looking for a good book that gives a legal and historical overview of the issue.

Items that I would like to study up on include:

• Worldwide history of thoughts on church/state separation
• Overview of the different faiths of our founding fathers
• The intentions of our founding fathers on church/state separation
• Important American court cases on church/state issues in history

If there is a single book that would cover all of these, that would be preferable. If you know of different books that cover these issues very well individually, then those would be great too.

Thanks!

Brian

[ June 29, 2002: Message edited by: Brian63 ]</p>

Toto

Browse through the infidels bookstore: (if you click through and buy a book, you support the Secular Web)

<a href="http://www.secweb.org/bookstore/books.asp" target="_blank">http://www.secweb.org/bookstore/books.asp</a>
(select Church and State in the "Search" category)

In particular,

<a href="http://www.secweb.org/bookstore/bookdetail.asp?BookID=167" target="_blank">The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment</a> by Lawrence Levy might be a good start.

There is a <a href="http://www.secweb.org/bookstore/bookdetail.asp?BookID=163" target="_blank">Collection of Supreme Court opinions</a>

There is a comprehesive web page on church state separation at

<a href="http://members.tripod.com/~candst/" target="_blank">http://members.tripod.com/~candst/</a>

I think Buffman will also have some good recommendations.

hezekiah jones

Leonard Levy's book is excellent. It has a brief bibliography that contains all the best resources (with Levy's mini-reviews, which are comical).

Another superb book, that covers much of what you're after, is Church, State, and Freedom by Leo Pfeffer, although it's from the late 60s.

Pfeffer wrote a subsequent book on the subject, Religion, State, and the Burger Court, that came out in 1984.

Bill Snedden

Although I've not read it, I understand <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/039331524X/qid=thesecularweb/" target="_blank">The Godless Constitution</a> to be an excellent resource.

Bill

[ June 30, 2002: Message edited by: Bill Snedden ]</p>