School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing.
 This, the first of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, provides the first comprehensive exploration of the Supreme Court's approach to religion, offering a close look at every case, including some that scholars have ignored.
 Hitchcock traces the history of the way the Court has rendered important decisions involving religious liberty. Prior to World War II it issued relatively few decisions interpreting the Religious Clauses of the Constitution. Nonetheless, it addressed some very important ideas, including the 1819 Dartmouth College case, which protected private religious education from state control, and the Mormon polygamy cases, which established the principle that religious liberty was restricted by the perceived good of society.
 It was not until the 1940s that a revolutionary change occurred in the way the Supreme Court viewed religion. During that era, the Court steadily expanded the scope of religious liberty to include many things that were probably not intended by the framers of the Constitution, and it narrowed the permissible scope of religion in public life, barring most kinds of public aid to religious schools and forbidding almost all forms of religious expression in the public schools. This book, along with its companion volume, From "Higher Law" to "Sectarian Scruples," offers a fresh analysis of the Court's most important decisions in constitutional doctrine. Sweeping in range, it paints a detailed picture of the changing relationship between religion and the state in American history.

The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 1: The Odyssey of the Religion Clauses (New Forum Books)

History

Hitchcock, James

World

Princeton University Press

School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing.
 This, the second of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, offers a complete analysis and interpretation of the Court's historical understanding of religion, explaining the revolutionary change that occurred in the 1940s. In Volume I: The Odyssey of the Religion Clauses (Princeton), Hitchcock provides the first comprehensive survey of the court cases involving the Religion Clauses, including a number that scholars have ignored.
 Here, Hitchcock examines how, in the early history of our country, a strict separation of church and state was sustained through the opinions of Jefferson and Madison, even though their views were those of the minority. Despite the Founding Fathers' ideas, the American polity evolved on the assumption that religion was necessary to a healthy society, and cooperation between religion and government was assumed.
 This view was seldom questioned until the 1940s, notes Hitchcock. Then, with the beginning of the New Deal and the appointment of justices who believed they had the freedom to apply the Constitution in new ways, the judicial climate changed.
 Hitchcock reveals the personal histories of these justices and describes how the nucleus of the Court after World War II was composed of men who were alienated from their own faiths and who looked at religious belief as irrational, divisive, and potentially dangerous, assumptions that became enshrined in the modern jurisprudence of the Religion Clauses. He goes on to offer a fascinating look at how the modern Court continues to grapple with the question of whether traditional religious liberty is to be upheld.

The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 2: From "Higher Law" to "Sectarian Scruples" (New Forum Books)

Catholicism and modernity: Confrontation or capitulation?

Religion & Spirituality

The Seabury Press

The recovery of the sacred

Seabury Press

What is Secular Humanism?: Why Humanism Became Secular and How It is Changing Our World (Servant Publications), Trade paperback

What Is Secular Humanism?: Why Humanism Became Secular and How It Is Changing Our World

RC Books / Servant Books

Years of crisis: Collected essays, 1970-1983

Roman Catholic Books

Years of Crisis: Collected Essays, 1970-1983

Ignatius Pr

James Hitchcock gives an extraordinarily incisive analysis of the liturgical abuse and destructive liturgical reforms brought about by professional liturgists and other "experts" over the last thirty years. Hitchcock chronicles the havoc wreaked by modern liturgists who abandoned the noble purposes of the classical (pre-1965) Liturgical Movement whose aim was to deepen people's appreciation of the inexhaustible mystery of the liturgy by elevating the practice of the liturgy to incorporate neglected riches of earlier centuries, especially the Patristic Age. Instead of seeking a deeper understanding of the great traditions of the Church through the ages, liturgists have sought "relevance" by means of continued adaptation to contemporary culture. Hitchcock reveals how the tendency toward a desacralized liturgy has had the most profound effects on the whole life of the Church, as well as society. One's basic approach to liturgy is likely to be both a reflection and a catalyst to a whole range of values and beliefs. As Hitchcock states, "It is impossible to change basic symbols and rituals without also changing the life of the society whose symbols and rituals they are."

The Recovery of the Sacred

Throughout its history the Catholic Church has taken positions on many subjects that are in one sense political, but in another sense are primarily moral, such as contraception, homosexuality, and divorce. One such issue, abortion, has split not only the United States, but Catholics as well. Catholics had to confront these issues within the framework of a democratic society that had no official religion. Abortion, Religious Freedom, and Catholic Politics is a study of opposing American Catholic approaches to abortion, especially in terms of laws and government policies. After the ruling of Roe vs. Wade, many pro-life advocates no longer felt their sentiments and moral code aligned with Democrats. For the first time, Catholics, as an entire group, became involved in U.S. politics. Abortion became one of the principal points of division in American Catholicism: a widening split between liberal Catholic Democrats who sought to minimize the issue and other Catholics, many of them politically liberal, whose pro-life commitments caused them to support Republicans. James Hitchcock discusses the 2016 presidential campaign and how it altered an already changed political landscape. He also examines the Affordable Care Act, LGBT rights, and the questions they raise about religious liberty.

Abortion, Religious Freedom, and Catholic Politics

Routledge

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