Between Church and State

Between Church and State is simply the finest history of religion in America available. It does a superb job of mapping the complex developments of the past fifteen years while also including significant new material throughout the text. Importantly, the second volume also retains the hallmark strengths of the first edition: meticulous scholarship, accessible and engaging prose, and an unapologetic advocacy for the values of respect for pluralism as a foundation for deep democracy. Through this volume, Professor Fraser solidifies his position as the premier scholar of the history of religion and education in the United States. -- Diane L. Moore, Harvard Divinity School, author of Overcoming Religious Illiteracy: A Cultural Studies Approach to the Study of Religion in Secondary Education Fraser's masterful synthesis is the best book in print on the history of religion and education in the United States. The prose is lively, the content authoritative. This wonderful second edition incorporates much new historical scholarship and brings the story up to date. I plan to use it in several of my classes. -- Milton Gaither, Messiah College, author of Homeschool: An American History The evolution of American doctrine on the relationship of church and state has been forged in contests over the place of religion in public schools and the role of the government in religious schools. And the tensions in the struggle to find the right balance have been heightened as America has become more self-consciously pluralistic about religion and as more and more religion has become a cover for political action. Jim Fraser, in this new edition of his wonderful primer on the subject, provides us all with a vehicle to understand the issues and evaluate the available approaches. -- John Sexton, President, New York University

Du Bois's debates about African American schooling, and the rapid growth of Jewish day schools among a community previously known for its deep commitment to secular public education.Today, the ongoing controversy about the place-or lack of place-of religion in public schools is a burning issue in the United States. Prayer at football games, creationism in the classroom, the teaching of religion and morals, and public funding for private religious schools are just a few of the subjects over which people are skirmishing. In Between Church and State, historian and pastor James W. Fraser shows that these battles have been going on for as long as there have been public schools and argues there has never been any consensus about what the "separation of church and state" means for American society or about the proper relationship between religion and public education. Looking at the difficult question of how private issues of faith can be reconciled with the very public nature of schooling, Fraser's classic book paints a complex picture of how a multicultural society struggles to take the deep commitments of people of faith into account-including people of many different faiths and no faith. In this fully updated second edition, Fraser tackles the culture wars, adding fresh material on current battles over public funding for private religious schools. He also addresses the development of the long-simmering evolution-creationism debate and explores the tensions surrounding a discussion of religion and the accommodation of an increasingly religiously diverse American student body. Between Church and State includes new scholarship on the role of Roger Williams and William Penn in developing early American conceptions of religious liberty. It traces the modern expansion of Catholic parochial schools and closely examines the passage of the First Amendment, changes in American Indian tribal education, the place of religion in Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois's debates about African American schooling, and the rapid growth of Jewish day schools among a community previously known for its deep commitment to secular public education.