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Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem--and What We Should Do About It Paperback – June 27, 2006

by Noah Feldman (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 44 ratings
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A brilliant and urgent appraisal of one of the most profound conflicts of our time

Even before George W. Bush gained reelection by wooing religiously devout "values voters," it was clear that church-state matters in the United States had reached a crisis. With Divided by God, Noah Feldman shows that the crisis is as old as this country--and looks to our nation's past to show how it might be resolved.

Today more than ever, ours is a religiously diverse society: Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist as well as Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish. And yet more than ever, committed Christians are making themselves felt in politics and culture.

What are the implications of this paradox? To answer this question, Feldman makes clear that again and again in our nation's history diversity has forced us to redraw the lines in the church-state divide. In vivid, dramatic chapters, he describes how we as a people have resolved conflicts over the Bible, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the teaching of evolution through appeals to shared values of liberty, equality, and freedom of conscience. And he proposes a brilliant solution to our current crisis, one that honors our religious diversity while respecting the long-held conviction that religion and state should not mix.

Divided by God speaks to the headlines, even as it tells the story of a long-running conflict that has made the American people who we are.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  4. Publication date
    June 27, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.71 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0374530386
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0374530389
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A reasoned, reasonable and consensus-seeking argument that is, of course, in danger of going unheard amid all the shouting." - Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University as well as a Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a contributing writer for Bloomberg View.

Before joining the Harvard faculty, Feldman was Cecelia Goetz Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2005. In 2004, he was a visiting professor at Yale Law School and a fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center. In 2003, he served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of the Transitional Administrative Law or interim constitution. He served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1998–1999). Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D. Phil. in Islamic Thought from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, serving as Book Reviews Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He received his A.B. summa cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1992, finishing first in his class.

He is the author of several books, including Cool War: The Future of Global Competition; the award winning and acclaimed Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Justices; The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State; Divided By God: America's Church-State Problem and What We Should Do About It; and After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy. With Kathleen Sullivan, he coauthored textbooks on constitutional and first amendment law. He has worked as a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (June 27, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374530386
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374530389
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.71 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

About the author

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Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman

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Noah Feldman is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Chairman of the Society of Fellows, and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, all at Harvard University. Feldman is the author of ten books, most recently To Be A Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel and the Jewish People (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2024).

Noah specializes in constitutional studies, with particular emphasis on power and ethics, design of innovative governance solutions, law and religion, and the history of legal ideas.

A policy & public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, Feldman also writes for The New York Review of Books and was a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine for nearly a decade.

Through his consultancy, Ethical Compass Advisors, Feldman advises companies on how to improve ethical decision-making by creating and implementing new governance solutions. In this capacity, he conceived and architected the Facebook Oversight Board, and continues to advise the company on ethics and governance issues.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
44 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kim A Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars Find out for yourself and get past the talking points !
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2006
Verified Purchase
If the church - state debate interests you, you owe it to yourself to get informed. This book does an excellent job of blowing up all the talking points, from both sides of the political spectrum and helps the reader understand what happened and see both sides of this fascinating issue. Here's a list of interesting, historical observations which vary from the typical left and right talking points.

The nation was NOT founded by Christians. Most of the founders were deists who believed in a creator, but were NOT traditional christians.

Those who wrote the constitution did not think christian symbols, prayer in public ceremonies or other chrsitian trappings "established" religion.

Bible reading was prominent in public schools all the way into the middle of the 20th century and was viewed as a way of establishing public morality. It was NOT viewed as establishing religion.

The judges who created a more severe interpretation of the establishment clause were influenced by the events of World War II, where millions were killed on the basis of their religion alone. The idea that they might have been power hungry, liberal and secular judges is not strongly supported by the facts. Justice Black who wrote the first opinion in 1947 that called for a "high wall of separation" was a former klansman and was concerned about one religion holding sway, not with building a secular country.

The establishment clause was originally applied only to federal matters.

There are many more fascinating historical facts that will help inform and broaden your grasp of this issue.

I highly recommend this book.
21 people found this helpful
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Edward W Rogosky
5.0 out of 5 stars Addressing the problem accurately!
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2005
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Unlike the rest of the "reviewers", I think that this book:"Divided by God:America's Church-State Problem" addresses a very real problem within the culture of the United States. WE THE PEOPLE, who are Christians, regardless of theological stripe, want control of the nation and each other.

Feldman addresses the history of the problem extremely accurately. His recounting of that history may be a little dry but his conclusions are on target, in my humble opinion.

This is a book written for this time, for unlike any time previous to this, we are in national crisis attempting to determine who shall rule the "ways and means of our country". This book, and I would recommend its inclusion as a textbook in college religion courses or sociology/anthropology courses, is an avenue of addressing the issues ar large within our culture.

Read this book! This book is an indepth study of the history of the difficulties of our "balanced" church-state relationship. This book makes perfect sense in the context of our confused times.
18 people found this helpful
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M. J. Keel
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth pondering - 4.5 stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2007
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In "Divided By God" Noah Feldman examines the church state issue from the problem of state, and colony, sponsored churches faced by the Founding Fathers, traces the history of church state relations, and how the ideas of the Founding Fathers were interpreted, from then to now. At the end he poses a possible solution that is well worth considering. His scholarship is excellent, and his writing is thoroughly readable. Those who have strong secularist tendencies as well as those with strong religious convictions should read this "outside the box" and potential solution to a huge dividing factor in American political life today.
One person found this helpful
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YCRAM
3.0 out of 5 stars Good background, shaky conclusions
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2012
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This book has been valuable for my students in terms of providing historic background on the rise of secularism in the US. The conclusion, however is rather flawed and presupposes a level of civility (present or future) among parties that is somewhat naive. A lot of unwarranted "shoulds"! Other authors (notably William Connolly) raise similar points but in a more considered framework.
4 people found this helpful
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Bobert Greysin
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book, Amazing quality.
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2018
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Amazing book, Amazing quality.
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Louise B. Albin
5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out book
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2013
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Extremely well written and well conceptualized book. Learned a lot about the contiual battle between religious freedom and goernment's relationshipn to religion.
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AMA
5.0 out of 5 stars ... well researched a must read for anyone wanting a better usa and a more peaceful planet
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2015
clearly written well researched a must read for anyone wanting a better usa and a more peaceful planet. pluralism par excellence.
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katvilani
4.0 out of 5 stars A great book pointing out the fact this country is at a crisis point regarding separation of church and state
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015
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A great book that details the fact that details how we have always as a nation had to deal with crises dealing with religious groups with great political and social clout trying to marginalize those of minority faiths, this conflict has always been with us. But in the United States it has reached a crisis point with politicians who are hell bent on making this country into a Christian theocracy exerting more and more influence on the political process. this is driven by people who elect representatives who share their religious values, rather than representatives who value our secular form of government.
3 people found this helpful
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Albion Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2017
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