The Godless Constitution and the Providential Republic
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- $32.99
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- $32.99
Publisher Description
Were America's founding ideals religious or secular?
In this timely and well-researched book, law scholar Steven D. Smith makes the case that the United States of America was founded on a providentialist view—the belief that God actively directs the destinies not only of individuals but of nations. Smith shows how this providentialist perspective was pervasively, officially, and unapologetically expressed in essential public documents like the Declaration of Independence and by presidents from Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln to modern presidents including FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Obama. A crucial point in Smith's argument is that the Constitution neither prescribed nor forbade this providentialist understanding; it was like an agnostic parent who allowed their children the freedom to follow a religious or nonreligious path, as they wished.
In modern times, by contrast, the courts and the legal and academic communities have frequently misinterpreted the Constitution as mandating governance that is completely secular. In so doing, they have effectively banished the providentialist perspective from American public philosophy. The consequences of this banishment have been deeply disruptive, contributing to dangerous polarization and lack of trust in government and other public institutions.
Smith's compelling study is an essential resource for making sense of current debates about the place of religion in American public life. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the extent to which secular neutrality is not mandated by the Constitution but rather is a modern invention with little grounding in the nation's history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A secular understanding of the U.S. Constitution ignores key religious elements that informed it, according to this energetic treatise. Smith (The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom), a law professor at UC San Diego, argues that though the Constitution never expressly mentions God, it is rooted in the "providentialist" belief that the nation was formed to further a "higher or transcendent purpose." This notion shaped America in the wake of the Revolutionary War, Smith explains, even if not everyone agreed on the exact nature of the country's purpose (some conceived of it as specifically Christian, others as a more general "maintenance of freedom and republican government"). The decline of providentialism was fueled by a series of mid-20th-century Supreme Court rulings that seemed to call for a wholly secular understanding of the Constitution. Today, Smith writes, secularism has seeped so deeply into American culture that it threatens to repudiate all "religious aspects of our past" and eradicate national identity, swapping a sense of shared purpose for—at best—ideals of personal fulfillment, or—at worst—a kind of unifying hatred of one another. Effectively interweaving legal and philosophical analysis, the author provides a fresh challenge to standard constitutional discourse, with implications for such issues as free speech, individualism, and religious freedom. This is sure to spark debate.
