Who will claim the ‘city on a hill?’
UMass Press book decrypts political rhetoric
• In the first 2008 presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama said that as president, he would “restore that sense that America is that shining beacon on a hill.”
• Ronald Reagan invoked the “shining city” his entire political life.
• John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, declared in 1630 that America, if it obeyed God's commandments, would be a “city on a hill.”
The new University of Massachusetts Press book, Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Bruce T. Murray, traces the origins of this rhetoric and how it reflects the tradition of American civil religion.
Murray also quotes Sen. John McCain in a section dealing with religious tolerance and Muslims in America. Religious Liberty in America surveys the development of religious pluralism in America for the past 400 years – from early colonial times to present controversies, such as the mixing of religion and politics, battles over religious symbols in the public square, the “culture wars,” immigration and faith-based initiatives.
“This book is a splendid presentation of the First Amendment, 'with civil religion as a parallel theme' — especially as presently related to so many issues in American political and religious life. Other books on these issues have been appearing of late, but none as clear and thorough as this one.”
— G.H. Shriver, Professor Emeritus, Georgia Southern University
Purchase Religious Liberty in America on the University of Massachusetts Press Web site.
Find out more about the author here.