"Religious liberty is one of the hallmarks of American democracy, but the principal architects of this liberty believed only a certain form of Christianity - namely, a liberal, rational, heterodox Christianity - was compatible with it. Conservative and post-liberal champions of the freedom of religion often ignore this point, sometimes even arguing that orthodox Christianity was, or should be, at the root of democratic liberty. John Colman shows otherwise in his close study of the religious views and political theologies of ...
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"Religious liberty is one of the hallmarks of American democracy, but the principal architects of this liberty believed only a certain form of Christianity - namely, a liberal, rational, heterodox Christianity - was compatible with it. Conservative and post-liberal champions of the freedom of religion often ignore this point, sometimes even arguing that orthodox Christianity was, or should be, at the root of democratic liberty. John Colman shows otherwise in his close study of the religious views and political theologies of John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Colman shows that Locke and his three American students specifically took aim at the idea of orthodoxy, which they argued perennially tempted its votaries to try to impose an artificial uniformity upon the religious heterogeneity that naturally exists in society"--
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