How Did the Virginians Ground Religious Rights?

In: Human rights review: HRR, Band 4, Heft 3, S. 17-33

Abstract

Pits Walter Berns' thesis that John Locke's philosophy, which looked to break with the traditional Christian understanding of nature & remove religion from politics, lies at the root of the American Founding against Jacques Maritain's thesis that the modern US democracy cannot be separated from Christian doctrine. Maritain's thesis is outlined before looking at how Virginians George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, & particularly, James Madison conceptualized religious liberty. William Penn is credited with establishing religious liberty in the colonies as a natural right & providing a Christian rationale for it; Madison's pamphlet Remonstrance (1785), which Berns draws heavily on, in turn relies on Penn's scheme. Madison, to his credit, transcends Penn, Mason, & Jefferson in averring that religious liberty is prior to civil society, rooted in nature. The explicit Christian language of Madison, & the God-human relations on which it draws, suggests that Maritain's thesis holds. In closing, attention turns to three classic texts from Jefferson &/or Madison that support Berns & others who insist that American references to natural rights originate with Locke; this supposition is countered. J. Zendejas