Separation of Church and State. By Philip Hamburger. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp. xiii, 514. Cloth, $49.95.)Philip Hamburger's Separation of Church and State is a timely, insightful, and provocative work. Nevertheless, the book is not persuasive. Issues such as prayer in school and President George W. Bush's proposal to fund church-controlled human service efforts have refueled the continuing debate on of religion and the legitimacy of the principle of the separation of church and state. It is in regard to last issue that Hamburger offers his work. In defining his thesis, the author begins by presuming that the original authors of the Bill of Rights and those who participated in its ratification did not understand the First Amendment in terms of separation of church and state. Recognizing the disparity between separation and disestablishment, he writes, this book attempts to understand how Americans came to interpret the First Amendment in terms of separation of church and state, and through inquiry it traces how Americans eventually transformed their religious liberty (3).In part one, the author explores early discourses on separation of church and state, such as the works of Richard Hooker and John Locke, before moving quickly into the late eighteenth century, where he examines the positions of religious dissenters. He argues that the religious dissenters did not seek separation; rather, they phrased their arguments and demands in such terminology as rights of conscience and freedom of religion. This rhetoric evolved into an antiestablishment sentiment that was first expressed in the nascent states and later accepted as the standard for the First Amendment (95).In part two, Hamburger reaches the focal point of his argument. Here he reviews the Republican efforts during the 1800 presidential election to use the principle of separation of church and state to limit the impact and influence of Federalist ministers. Such an attack placed the ministers in the proverbial corner. For if they denounced such a principle, they opened themselves up to the charge that they were advocating a religious establishment. By tactic the Republicans sought to stimulate individual involvement in politics free of church dominance and eliminate the Federalist ministers as a political force. The major Republican contribution to the principle of separation, however, came as a result of their success in the Election of 1800. In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson penned his now famous (or infamous, depending on one's politics) letter to the Danbury Baptists. This letter gave us the wall of separation metaphor that later gained constitutional proportions. Hamburger points out that despite the notoriety of metaphor, these sentiments were not shared by the Baptists, for they refused even to memorialized the President's letter in their records. A version to the principle of separation, he contends, was shared by most people during period, in part because it was difficult for people to disconnect the relationship between religion and government.During the mid-nineteenth century, the subject of part three, Hamburger argues that separation of church and state was reinterpreted through the rise of a mythology that established it as an American ideal and even a constitutional right since the eighteenth century (192). This mythology emerged as part of the nativists' attacks upon the growing Catholic immigrant population. In their attempts to thwart any Catholic influence, the Protestant-based nativists sought to define Americans with the principle of separation of church and state, thereby defining Catholics as un-American because of their alleged allegiance to the pope.In the final portion of the book, Hamburger enters the twentieth century. Here he argues that the vehicles for the reinterpretation of the First Amendment have changed. These new efforts began as both nativists and liberals attempted to amend the Constitution to establish a clear basis for the constitutional separation of church and state. …
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Jan 1, 2010
Ralph James 
Open Access