Journal of Church and State

American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. By Ton Meacham. New York: Random House, 2006. 415 pp. $23.95 cloth, $15.95 paper.High marks should be given Jon Meacham, Managing Editor of Newsweek, for this insightful treatment...

A visiting student from Italy was surprised two summers ago to learn of the religious responsibilities and prerogatives of the Moroccan monarchy. "This is very medieval, and I am afraid that I cannot understand this," he protested. I responded by explaining...

Christ and Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times. By Joerg Rieger. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2007. 334pp. $20.00.Joerg Rieger's Christ and Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times is a sweeping analysis of the ways in which empire...

IWhile history provides useful keys to the present, this year's presidential campaign offers much that is new. In contrast to the recent past, the January primaries brought huge crowds into the political arena. A large proportion of those crowds, especially...

Does God Belong in the Public Schools? By Kent Greenawalt. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. 261 pp. np.Greenawalt addresses four legal issues involving religion in the public schools: (1) whether devotional practices are allowed; (2)...

Vermont was going godless. That was what Aaron Cleveland was forced to conclude at the end of his 1808 missionary tour. Reporting back to the Connecticut Missionary Society, he wondered about the possible consequences of the law, passed the previous...

Islam and Political Violence: Muslim Diaspora and Radicalism in the West. By Shahram Akbarzadeh. London and New York: I. B. Tauris & Co., 2007. 288pp. $85.00.Islam and Political Violence is a collection of essays about the elevated state of terrorism...

John Jewel and the English National Church: The Dilemmas of an Erastian Reformer. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. By Gary W. Jenkins. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006. viii + 293pp. $99.95In this revisionist work, Gary W. Jenkins rejects past...

CHINAChina's leader Hu Jintao has been reaching out to religious leaders in his campaign to create "a harmonious socialist society." In October, he told the Communist Party's Seventeenth National Congress that they should not see religion as a threat...

Prophetic Realism: Beyond Militarism and Pacifism in an Age of Terror. By Ronald H. Stone. New York: T & T Clark, 2005. 192 pp. $27.95.The great strength of this book is the clarity author Ronald Stone brings to the meaning, history, and theological...

Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law. Edited by Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collett. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007. 403pp. np.This is a wonderful collection of essays...

Religion and Politics in the International System Today. By Eric O. Hanson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 345 pp. $28.99.This book takes on an ambitious task: it seeks to analyze the role of religion in the post-Cold War world. To these...

Suing for America's Soul: John Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute, and Conservative Christians in the Courts. By R. Jonathan Moore. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm B. Eerdsman Publishing Company, 2007. 214pp. $18.00.In Moore's absorbing...

The Divided States of America? What Liberals and Conservatives are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match. By Richard Land. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2007. 336 pp. $22.99.Richard Land focuses on an extremely important subject...

The Regensburg Lecture. By James V. Schall. South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press, 2007. 174pp. $20.00.In this methodical yet compendious exposition of Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 lecture in negensburg, Germany, James Schall elucidates the broader theme...

The Teachings of Modern Roman Catholicism on Law, Politics, & Human Nature. Edited by John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander; introduction by Russell Hittinger. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 499 pp. np.John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander,...

W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender. Edited by Michaele L. Ferguson and Lori Jo Marso. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007. 290 pp. $79.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.This provocative set of essays explores...