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John Adams' views on religion & politics are explained through the history & provisions of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, which Adams in large measure drafted. In a broad sense, Adams upheld as his first principle of political philosophy a balance of the freedom of many private religions with the establishment of one public Christian religion. For him, too little religious freedom is a recipe for hypocrisy & impiety, while too much religious freedom is an invitation to depravity & license. He advocated for a "mild & equitable establishment" of Protestantism. D. Miller

This essay offers a critical rereading of the western theological and legal doctrine of illegitimacy or bastardy. The author traces the western stigma against bastards to the Bible, particularly to the story of Ishamel, the illegitimate son of Abraham and Hagar. He then shows the systematic discrimination against bastards in classic canon law and in early modern Anglo-American common law, and the slow amelioration of their plight in legal reforms in the United States in the past century. The author concludes that the western doctrine of illegitimacy is theologically illegitimate and suggests a few historically-informed legal remedies, notably adoption, that would help mitigate the plight of illegitimates today.

In part because of Johan van der Vyver's pioneering work, Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian, educator, journalist, and politician, is well-known in South Africa. This article examines the lesser-known relationship between Kuyper's political theology and American law and politics. Kuyper praised American constructions of religious liberty and pluralism, separation of church and state, and free association and political pluralism. In Kuyper's view, these were the political fruits of an historical Calvinism that needed to be restored to political respectability if the American experiment was to live up to its promise. While taking much of Kuyper's point, this article argues that Kuyper both overstated the Calvinist contributions to the American experiment, and failed to appreciate the unique covenantal theology that informed the Puritan Calvinist legal and political contributions that were made. Two illustrations of this influence are offered: (I) how the Puritans' emerging theology o f liberty of covenant contributed to American views of religious liberty; and (2) how the Puritans' emerging sociology of covenants o f liberty contributed uniquely to American views of social and political pluralism.