In 1947, the Supreme Court embraced the concept of church-state separation as shorthand for the meaning of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The concept became embedded in Court's jurisprudence and remains so today. Yet separation of church and state is not just a legal construct; it is embedded in the culture. Church-state separation was a popular cultural ideal, chiefly for Protestants and secularists, long before the Supreme Court adopted it as a constitutional principle. While the Court's church-state decisions have impacted public attitudes--particularly those controversial holdings regarding prayer and Bible reading in public schools--the idea of church-state separation has remained relatively popular; recent studies indicate that approximately two-thirds of Americans support the concept, even though they disagree over how to apply it.
In the follow up to his 2010 book The Second Disestablishment, Steven K. Green sets out to do examine the development of modern separationism from a legal and cultural perspective. The Third Disestablishment examines the dominant religious-cultural conflicts of the 1930s-1950s between Protestants and Catholics, but it also shows how other trends and controversies during mid-century impacted both judicial and popular attitudes toward church-state separation: the Jehovah's Witnesses' cases of the late-30s and early-40's, Cold War anti-communism, the religious revival and the rise of civil religion, the advent of ecumenism, and the presidential campaign of 1960. The book then examines how events of the 1960s-the school prayer decisions, the reforms of Vatican II, and the enactment of comprehensive federal education legislation providing assistance to religious schools-produced a rupture in the Protestant consensus over church-state separation, causing both evangelicals and religious
progressives to rethink their commitment to that principle. Green concludes by examining a series of church-state cases in the late-60s and early-70s where the justices applied notions of church-state separation at the same time they were reevaluating that concept.
Industry Reviews
"The idea of church-state separation might be considered the quintessential American cultural norm, but this book reveals the manifold interpretations and applications of that supposed norm in everyday American life." -- Ana Self Schuber, The University of Alabama, Religious Studies Review
"The completion of this latest volume places Green's achievements on par with other defining works of church-state history.... The sum of The Third Establishment's cogent, multifaceted argument is that separationism was neither a precisely defined concept nor directed exclusively at Catholics. It embodied a diffuse, secularizing current in American culture which, when paired with the pluralistic impulses of the Civil Rights era, collapsed under the
weight of its contradictions. Nonetheless, it defined American jurisprudence for decades. And no one has done a better job of illuminating its twentieth-century history than Steven Green." -- Church History
"Green's account of Church-State issues in the mid-twentieth century is comprehensive, coherent and compelling. Based on extensive research in primary sources and brimming with astute analysis, The third disestablishment greatly enhances our understanding of the relationship between America's government and its religious institutions and communities." -- Gary Scott Smith, Grove City College, Pennsylvania, Journal of Ecclesiastical History
"It is impossible, in such short space, to do justice to what is easily one of the most important books on the postwar religion cases to appear in many years." -- John W. Compton, Chapman University, Journal of Church and State
"Green argues persuasively that previous studies have either missed or mischaracterized crucial aspects of the story. His revisionist reading of the material is both subtle and profoundâ. easily one of the most important books on the postwar religion cases to appear in many years." -- Journal of Church and State
"Recommended." -- S.B. Lichtman, CHOICE
"Yet another sterling effort by one of America's leading historians of religious liberty. Having taken us from colonial times to World War I in three previous volumes, Steven Green now traces the rise and fall of church-state separation ideals in American law and culture in the twentieth century. He combines careful legal analysis of familiar First Amendment cases with a novel account of the escalating cultural wars over separatist ideals waged in religious,
political, academic, advocacy, and media circles alike. Here is a compelling and authoritative story, well and wistfully told."--John Witte, Jr., Director of the Center for the Study of Law and
Religion, Emory University
"Steven Green is the Charles Dickens of American religious disestablishmentDLthe preeminent chronicler of the characters, movements, ideas, and decisions that have shaped church-state relations in the US. This volume, the latest installment in his oeuvre, brings the tale into the 1950s, the era of high judicial disestablishment. It should be required reading for anyone who care about religious liberty and its history."--Noah R. Feldman, author of The Three
Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President
