Whose God rules?
Subtitle: is the United States a secular nation or a theolegal democracy?
By: edited by Nathan C. Walker and Edwin J. Greenlee ; foreword by Tony Blair
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; Springer
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 263
ISBN-13: 9780230117839
Subjects: Politics and government; Religion and state; Democracy; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / General; Religious aspects; Religion and politics; RELIGION / Religion, Politics & State; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Government / General
Description: "The United States is not a secular democracy where laws guarantee freedom from religion, nor is it a theocracy, where a single religion prescribes all laws. This book demonstrates that the United States, whether we like it or not, is a theolegal nation--a democracy that simultaneously guarantees citizens the right to free expression of belief while preventing the establishment of a state religion. This guarantees officials the right to use theology as one of many resources in making, applying, or administering law because a theolegal democracy does not prevent citizens or officials from using their religious worldview in the public arena as seen in secular nations. However, theolegal democracy also does not permit officials to use their theology to deny civil rights to those who do not meet those creedal tests as seen in theocracies"--

"Theolegal democracy defines a political system that allows public officials to use theology in its democratic process to shape law without instituting an official state religion. In Whose God Rules?, preeminent scholars debate the theolegal theory, which describes the gray area between a secular legal system, where theology is dismissed as irrational and a threat to the separation of religion and state, and a theocracy, where a single religion determines all law. The United States is neither a secular nation nor a theocracy, leading scholars to ask whether the United States is a theolegal democracy. If so, whose God rules?"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: Foreword; title: Tony Blair * Introduction to the Theolegal Theory; title: Nathan C. Walker * Part I: A Theolegal Nation * Editorial Preface to Unit I * Theolegal Discourse; title: Kent Greenawalt * Religious Fairness; title: Martha Nussbaum * Religious Secularism; title: Paula M. Cooey * Part II: Theolegal Officials * Editorial Preface to Unit II * The Religious Right; title: Alan Dershowitz * Religious Judges; title: Edwin J. Greenlee * Religious Presidents; title: Mark J. Rozell * Presidential Abortion Rhetoric; title: Ted G. Jelen and Brendan Morris * Part III: Theolegal Democracy * Editorial Preface to Unit III * Stem Cell Research; title: Robert P. George * Evolution v. Creation; title: Michael Zimmerman * Marriage Equality; title: Stacey Sobel and Edwin J. Greenlee * Theolegal Marriage; title: Christine Carlson * Part IV: Theodiplomacy * Editorial Preface to Unit IV * Theotorture of Guantánamo; title: David L. McColgin * Theolegal Nuclear Weapons Policy; title: Douglas B. Shaw * Theology of Human Rights; title: William F. Schultz * Religious Freedom; title: Joseph K. Grieboski * Conclusion; title: Edwin J. Greenlee and Nathan C. Walker.