Description: How Jefferson and Madison ensured religious freedom in the United States
Thomas Jefferson considered the establishment of religious freedom as a governing principle in the United States to be one of the great accomplishments of his life. It was not his accomplishment alone, however, but the result of sustained cooperation with the "father of the Constitution," James Madison. The Grand Collaboration is the first comprehensive study of Jefferson and Madison's mutual endeavor to ensure free inquiry, freedom of conscience, and the separation of church and state, examining their fifty-year partnership beginning with the Virginia Declaration of Rights and culminating with the founding of the University of Virginia as the nation's first truly secular institution of higher education. In an era of increasing concern with the "original intentions" of the founding generation, Steven Green, one of our great authorities on the concept and history of religious freedom, represents the best possible guide to these complex, critical issues--issues that continue to confront our society in the twenty-first century.Review Quotes:
[Green] builds a compelling case for the importance of religious freedom to the country and the importance of these two men for defining and defending its contours. While every state in the Union was transforming its relations between church and state after the Revolution, no transformation was as remarkable as Virginia's. In a single decade, Virginia progressed from having 'the most entrenched and intolerant religious establishmen'" of any state to boasting 'the highest degree of religious freedom in human history' (p. 66). And this transformation was owing almost entirely to Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (passed in 1786), combined with Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785) and political acumen.
--Journal of Southern History