RT Article
T1 The First Amendment's religion clauses: the Calvinist document that interprets them both
JF The journal of religion & society
VO 12
A1 Farish, Leah
LA English
YR 2010
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1806563967
AB This paper suggests that the Westminster Confession of Faith's provisions about church and state, revised in Philadelphia at the start of the Constitution's ratifying convention, furnished much of the syntax and vocabulary for the First Amendment's religion clauses. Recognizing the cultural links between the new American government and the Presbyterian Church, the author argues that it was natural for the founders to look to how the new Westminster Confession situated church and state. The author argues that Fisher Ames's proposed wording for the First Amendment won immediate adoption because it resonated with the Confession, standing as it did in that culture for unity and good sense.
K1 1751-1836
K1 1758-1808
K1 Ames
K1 Church and state; United States
K1 Fisher
K1 James
K1 law and religion
K1 Law; United States
K1 Madison
K1 Reformed
K1 Religious thought; 1700-1799
K1 Theology
K1 United States. Constitution. 1st-10th Amendments
K1 Westminster Confession