The Declaration of Independence and God

Owen Anderson is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. His books include The Natural Moral Law: The Good after Modernity (2013) and The Clarity of God's Existence (2008), which study the ethics of belief in God, how God can be known, and the knowledge of God as the highest good.

'This volume deepens our understanding of the foundations of our basic beliefs by analyzing the metaphysical and ethical foundations of the Declaration of Independence. Scholars and citizens alike will benefit from this subtle inquiry into the philosophical and theological underpinnings of that text. One might have thought there was nothing new and persuasive to say about the Declaration, but Anderson's excellent volume proves that wrong.' G. Alan Tarr, Board of Governors Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey

• Introduction; 1. Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine; 2. The reformed influence on common sense philosophy; 3. Common sense and self-evident in law; 4. Intuition and the self-evident in law; 5. Naturalism, Darwinism, the self-evident, and law; 6. Revivalism, new religious movements, and law; 7. Liberal theology and legal transformations; 8. Secular and religious goods in the twentieth century; Conclusion.