one of our greatest Founding Fathers, and Ernest Hemingway, one of the great modern writers of the English language. If you cannot imagine this, then read this book, for the author writes like Hemingway, as if he were having a friendly conversation with you, but unlike most books about religion and politics, he puts forward political ideas that Madison would most likely approve of. The author's thesis also has the advantage of being sensible and pragmatic: we should allow for more robust religious pluralism in our society. In many ways, this is precisely the same formula James Madison proposes for secular "factions" (i.e. interest groups). In the Federalist Papers, Madison correctly notes that "factions" are dangerous, but his originality lies in arguing that we should have more factions, not less, because the more factions there are, the more difficult it is for any one faction to achieve dominance. This is, in effect, what the author proposes for 'religious factions', and I think it is a brilliant solution, a Madisonian solution. In addition, the author provides a very readable history of religious intolerance on American soil. He gave me a much deeper perspective of the problem than I had before I read his book, and indirectly, he made it easier for me to understand the motives of religious fanatics in the present (especially the problem of intolerance in the Muslim world). In this highly readable book, preeminent constitutional lawyer and First-Amendment scholar Seamus Hasson provides a worthy tour of Church-State relations