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Religious liberty depends on keeping the government out of religious matters, whereas religious toleration is a gift of government. Virginia's Bill for Religious Liberty and Massachusetts’ Constitution of 1780 illustrated these contrasting concepts. The modern preoccupation with the meaning of establishment of religion overlooks the significance to Americans in 1789, of the free exercise of religion. So, too, modern emphasis on the image of “separation of Church and State” leads scholars away from an appreciation of the historical meaning of the Amendment.

This chapter develops reflections on a selection of important questions, which have been raised in the body of the book, which are: How best may we interpret Rawls and Habermas? How does real conversation proceed? To what extent does communication between ideological strangers involve ‘translation’? What is a religious argument? How should we conceive ‘the secular’? Can the state's establishment of religion ever be liberal? And what does all this imply for current negotiations between Islam and the liberal West?

This chapter compares the variety of relationships between Islamic communities in Europe and in the United States. In particular, it displays the variety of forms that the ‘establishment’ of religion in European countries takes, tracks the ‘secularization’ of Islamic organizations, observes the emerging public face of American Islam, and argues that the presence of Muslims in the West has weakened secularist ideology and contributed to the decline of the Modernist narrative.

This chapter focuses particularly on the ideas and activities of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in support of religious freedom. From the time he was a young man, Madison was an opponent of every form of religious establishment. Unlike Jefferson, who was inspired by the intellectual freedom from religion, Madison admired the political and social values that arise from religious freedom. Madison opposed Patrick Henry’s efforts to tax the population to support the clergy in what become known as the assessment controversy. Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance,” written in opposition to Henry’s proposed tax, became a classic text in the argument for disestablishment and for understanding the Establishment Clause. Madison became the principal advocate for the Establishment Clause in the First Congress.

This chapter explains and defends three principles of church-state separation, one requiring government to protect religious liberty, the second requiring government to treat different religious equally, and the third requiring governmental neutrality toward religion. These principles rule out the state’s establishing a religion, but they do not require governmental neutrality in matters of basic value. Value commitments need not be religious, and it is argued that a system of compulsory education requires making them. In the light of the principles the chapter defends, its concluding section explores whether a democracy may properly give educational vouchers that allow parents to educate their children in schools of their choice.

This chapter argues that the opposition to establishments of religion did not begin with eighteenth-century secularists or republicans, but with some seventeenth century Puritans, including most prominently Roger Williams. For Williams, “no establishment” was a necessary component of freedom of religion. Many of the constitutional ideas of seventeenth-century Puritans survived into eighteenth-century American constitutional thought, including Williams’ belief that the church of believers should be separate from the politics of the state. Williams’ teachings endured into the eighteenth century and led many to oppose ratification of the Constitution of 1787 unless a guarantee against an establishment would be added. James Madison, the principal proponent of the Establishment Clause, followed the concept launched by Williams and continued by his followers. Madison’s arguments in the Memorial and Remonstrance” against religious establishments borrowed from Williams’ beliefs.