Rediscovering America's Sacred Ground

Barbara A. McGraw, JD, PhD , is Professor of Social Ethics, Law and Public Life and Director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism at Saint Mary's College of California. She is coeditor (with Jo Renee Formicola) of Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics on America's Sacred Ground and coauthor (with Robert S. Ellwood) of Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions, Ninth Edition.

• Acknowledgments PROLOGUE 1. TOWARD A DEBATE ON COMMON GROUND At the Crossroads of the Twenty-First Century Roots of the Conflict Original Intent and the Religion Clauses: At the Core of the DebateEntering the Fray On Looking Back to Rediscover America's Moral Foundations A Few Definitions Part I. Looking Back to Rediscover America's Sacred Ground 2. REDISCOVERING THE ROOTS OF AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND IN JOHN LOCKE John Locke: Prophet of America Locke's Political Theology: Locating the Sacred Center in Each Individual's Relationship with GodThe Social Contract as Society's Sacred Ground Aiming for the Kingdom of God Requires "Just Bounds" between Civil Government and Churches Rediscovering the Individual as the Sole Authority over Conscience and the Authentic Religious Community as a Free and Voluntary Call to ConscienceSetting the "Just Bounds" between Individual Conscience's Moral Choice and the State Rethinking the Private/Public Dichotomy in Locke's Political Theology and the "Public" Role of Religion Rediscovering the Moral Ground of Locke's Political Theology Distinguishing Locke's Reasonable Christianity from His Political Theology Creating the Political Context for the Realization of the True and the Good 3. THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: ESTABLISHING AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND Rediscovering John Locke in the Revolutionary Spirit Rediscovering the Religious Roots of the American Political System The States: Toward Government that Ensures Freedom of Conscience and Seeks to Promote a Good Society The United States: Toward Government that Ensures Freedom of Conscience and Creates the Context for the Search for the True and the Good Exploring the Theological Terrain of America's Sacred Ground Comparing the Moral Terrain of America's Sacred Ground with the Moral Order of Overarching Worldview Approaches to Government The Civic and Conscientious Morality of the Two-Tiered Public Forum The Role of Religion in the Public Forum and in the Pursuit of the Good America's Sacred Ground: The Foundation for Pluralism and Multiculturalism that Refutes the Claims of Moral RelativityAmerica's Sacred Ground as the Common Good: Where Religious Voices are Prominent and Truth Can Shift for Herself Part II. Rooting the Contemporary Debate in Sacred Ground 4. TAKING SIDES AND LOOKING LEFT Unraveling the Contemporary Debate Embracing the Fears at the Extremes: Left and Right Reconsidering the Secular Left from the Perspective of America's Sacred Ground John Rawls: Compromising America's Sacred Ground with Public Reasons 5. LOOKING RIGHT Reconsidering the Religious Right from the Perspective of America's Sacred Ground Accommodation: Compromising America's Sacred Ground by Mediating the Extremes 6. GROUNDING THE DEBATE Sifting through the Confusion in the Contemporary Debate Reorienting the Debate to Aim for the Good CONCLUSION: AMERICA'S SACRED GROUND: OUR CIVIC FAITH Appendix A. A Few Definitions Appendix B. Freedom of Conscience in Revolutionary Period Constitutions and Declarations of RightsAppendix C. Drafts of the Religious Clauses Proposed in the Debates of the First Congress Notes Suggested Readings Index