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A Dream Dialogue on Religious Liberty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Frederick W. Guyette
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Extract

Suppose for a moment that you have been wrestling with the question of religious liberty in American history and contemporary life. You begin to see that it is a multi-layered concept, not easily captured in one attempt. Suppose further, then, that you could gather together in one place some of the people who have made a significant contribution to the discussion. Who would you invite to speak? How would they respond to each other? In light of what they said, how willing would you be to re-examine your own assumptions, your most cherished conclusions?

In a dream, anything can happen. The most unlikely people may find themselves in agreement, while longtime friends may find themselves at odds with one another. Our interlocutors might be acquainted with unfolding events beyond the boundaries of their historical careers, or they might confess that their knowledge is still limited to their own historical horizon …

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Articles
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Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , 2005 , pp. 459 - 481
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Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2004

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References

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The term “founding generation” [as used by Attorney General Meese] describes a rather broad and diverse class. It includes apostles of intolerance as well as tolerance, advocates of different points of view in religion as well as politics, and great minds in Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as Massachusetts. I am not at all sure that men like James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin or the pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, would have regarded strict neutrality on the part of the Government between religion and irreligion as “bizarre.”

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