Steven K. Green, renowned for his scholarship on the separation of church and state, charts the career of the concept and helps us understand how it has fallen into disfavor with many Americans.

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson distilled a leading idea in the early American republic and wrote of a wall of separation between church and state. That metaphor has come down from Jefferson to twenty-first-century Americans through a long history of jurisprudence, political contestation, and cultural influence. This book traces the development of the concept of separation of church and state and the Supreme Court's application of it in the law.

Green finds that conservative criticisms of a separation of church and state overlook the strong historical and jurisprudential pedigree of the idea. Yet, arguing with liberal advocates of the doctrine, he notes that the idea remains fundamentally vague and thus open to loose interpretation in the courts. As such, the history of a wall of separation is more a variable index of American attitudes toward the forces of religion and state.

Indeed, Green argues that the Supreme Court's use of the wall metaphor has never been essential to its rulings. The contemporary battle over the idea of a wall of separation has thus been a distraction from the real jurisprudential issues animating the contemporary courts.

Steven K. Green is the Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and Affiliated Professor of History and Religious Studies at Willamette University. He is the author of five books and more than forty scholarly articles on the intersection of history, law, and religion.

This book opens an interesting dialogue about the concept in the early days of the Constitution, which is of particular importance to recent religion cases decided by the Supreme Court and to all looking to understand the Court's religious jurisprudence.

R. Marie Griffith, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, author of Moral Combat :

Steven K. Green has written a magisterial history of the concept of church-state separation in American law and popular culture. His lively and vivid storytelling illuminates changing views toward this protean concept in all of its complexity and indeterminacy. A deeply learned, enlightening, and unforgettable book.

Mark D. McGarvie, Visiting Scholar, American Bar Foundation, author of Law and Religion in American History:

Always thoughtful and thorough, Green cements his status as a valuable contributor to the ongoing debate regarding the historical role of religion in American law and governance in Separating Church and State.

Barry Hankins, Editor of Journal of Church and State:

In Separating Church and State, Green, an expert on politics and religion, takes a hard look at the evidence and fashions an eminently readable and highly interesting historical argument. Anyone engaged in the church-state conversations should read this book. The payoff will be well worth it.