Customer Reviews

Jefferson and Madison on the Separation of Church and State

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Jefferson And Madison On Separation Of Church And State: Writings On Religion And Secularism is painstakingly compiled and professionally edited by historian, journalist, lecturer and freethinker Lenni Brenner. In today's political climate of red states and blue states, neo-cons and the religious right, "family values" and federally funded "faith-based" initiative, prayer in public schools and moves to constitutionally deny gay marriage, a renewed look at the thoughts and comments by two of our most influential founding fathers on the subject of religion and the state is both timely and needed. The selections comprising this highly recommended reference for politicians, clergy, and non-specialist general readers with a stake in the separation of church and state, draw from correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and other notable figures of early American history including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Law, John Jay, Tom Paine, William Bradford, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Of special note are two appendices in which the timelines of Jefferson and Madison's lives are presented, and a "Scholar's Afterword" which traces the history of religion in American politics from the Civil War to the present day. Urgently recommended reading!

Brenner is not without some bias in this, but he is also not without some scholarship. It would be difficult for him, as an atheist, to not receive criticism as having an agenda with this book, but even in spite of this the work itself seems to hold up rather well.

The letters are compiled accurately as far as other readings I have done, and if they are "cherry-picked" as some reviewers say, it is only for relevancy.

I have to admit that the attack I am seeing on the book here is either outright ranting about him being a Trotsky loving Marxist, (as if this ruined his credibility in some way) or just a denial of the evidence being presented in his text. The lines of the letters are rather plainly spoken; an issue with this book is more likely a discomfort with what Jefferson and Madison were saying.

For the more conservative bent, this is borne out in the recent textbook revisions in Texas that minimize Jefferson's role as a founder. Probably has a lot to do with the "wall of separation" and things like these letters. Bummer that he wrote the Declaration of Independence while Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, and father'ed the Constitution.

Seems that the two most important document writers in American history were not the god-fearing Christian paragons that fox news may wish you to believe.

As evidenced by the single one star by the obvious troll, this collection from our founders terrifies the fundamentalist right. From their post it was obvious that the troll did not, or could not read the publication in question. Our country's founders left us exraordinary documentary evidence for the 1st Amendment's intent, and only a desprate act of willfull ignorance could lead one to think otherwise in the face of said evidence

Both Jefferson and Madison were most probably Deists, most certainly hostile to "organized religion" including Christianity. It's rather amazing how our universal public education and our omnipresent "educational" media have left so many of us so much less capable of reasoned scepticism than our scarcely-educated founding fathers.

Reviewing the editorial commentary by Brenner in this work, and delving into the supplied material, it is quite clear that the editor/commentator is pushing an agenda that would be anathema to the delegates in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, including Mr. Madison. Jefferson's references to the "wall of separation" are generally taken out of centext and Brenner's use is no exception. Brenner inadvertantly admits his cherry picking of the writings of the 3rd and 4th presidents in his introduction, thus affirming the biased nature of this work which is a blatant attempt at further undermining the founders, faith in divine providence, and the Constitution.