Liberalism and the American Constitutional Experience
ABSTRACT
Conferees entered the current debate over the relationship between religion, liberalism, and civil society by considering mostly primary texts from American constitutional practice and debates over the meaning of American liberty as well as contests regarding religious and economic freedoms.
READING LIST
From Liberty Fund
The Founders’ Constitution
by Edited by Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner
The documentary sources and inspirations of The Founders’ Constitution reach to the early seventeenth century and extend through those Amendments to the Constitution that were adopted by 1835.
In cooperation with the University of Chicago Press, Liberty Fund has prepared a new online edition of the entire work at:
Additional Readings
“Declaration of Independence.” Downloaded from TeachingAmericanHistory.org, a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1 (April 3, 2018).
“Virginia Constitution of 1776.” Downloaded from TeachingAmericanHistory.org, a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/constitution-of-virginia/ (April 3, 2018).
“Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.” Downloaded from TeachingAmericanHistory.org, a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/constitution-of-pennsylvania/ (April 3, 2018).
Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, United States Supreme Court (494 U.S. 872, 1990), majority opinion. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/494/872#writing-USSC_CR_0494_0872_ZO.
Obama, Barack. "Commencement Address at Notre Dame University," 2009. Time.com. Downloaded at http://time.com/4336922/obama-commencement-speech-transcript-notre-dame/.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, United States Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, concurring opinion. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-354.
Brownson, Orestes A. and Henry F. Brownson. The Works of Orestes A. Brownson: Containing the First Part of the Political Writings, Volume 13. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 1844.
Deneen, Patrick J. Why Liberalism Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist. Edited by George W. Carey and James McClellan. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2001.
Jefferson, Thomas. “A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.” Downloaded from TeachingAmericanHistory.org, a project of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/a-bill-for-establishing-religious-freedom/ (April 3, 2018).
Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Edited by C. B. Macpherson. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980.
Madison, James. Writings. Edited by Jack Rakove. New York: The Library of America, 1999.
Murray, John Courtney. Religious Liberty: Catholic Struggles with Pluralism. Louisville: Westminster / John Knox Press, 1993.
Novak, Michael. Free Persons and the Common Good. Lanham: Madison Press, 1988.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, Volumes 1 and 2 [English Edition]. Edited by Eduardo Nolla. Translated by James T. Schleifer. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2012.
West, Thomas. The Political Theory of the American Founding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.