Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America / Edition 2

by James W. Fraser

Overview

A fully updated second edition of this essential look at the continuing tensions between religion and American public schools.

Today, the ongoing controversy about the place—or lack of place—of religion in public schools is a burning issue in the United States. Prayer at football games, creationism in the classroom, the teaching of religion and morals, and public funding for private religious schools are just a few of the subjects over which people are skirmishing. In Between Church and State, historian and pastor James W. Fraser shows that these battles have been going on for as long as there have been public schools and argues there has never been any consensus about what the “separation of church and state” means for American society or about the proper relationship between religion and public education.

Looking at the difficult question of how private issues of faith can be reconciled with the very public nature of schooling, Fraser’s classic book paints a complex picture of how a multicultural society struggles to take the deep commitments of people of faith into account—including people of many different faiths and no faith. In this fully updated second edition, Fraser tackles the culture wars, adding fresh material on current battles over public funding for private religious schools. He also addresses the development of the long-simmering evolution-creationism debate and explores the tensions surrounding a discussion of religion and the accommodation of an increasingly religiously diverse American student body.

Between Church and State includes new scholarship on the role of Roger Williams and William Penn in developing early American conceptions of religious liberty. It traces the modern expansion of Catholic parochial schools and closely examines the passage of the First Amendment, changes in American Indian tribal education, the place of religion in Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois’s debates about African American schooling, and the rapid growth of Jewish day schools among a community previously known for its deep commitment to secular public education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421420585
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2016
Edition description:	second edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James W. Fraser is a professor of history and education at New York University. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America and Teach: A Question of Teaching.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Holy Commonwealth to "No Laws Respecting the Establishment of Religion," 1600–1792
2. Creating an American Common School and a Common Faith: Horace Mann and the Protestant Public Schools, 1789–1860
3. Roman Catholics and the Common School Movement, 1801–1892
4. Church and School in Slave and Free Communities, 1802–1902
5. Native American Religion, Christian Missionaries, and Government Schools, 1819–1978
6. The Many Origins of the Scopes Trial, 1859–1925
7. Prayer, Bible Reading, and Federal Money: The Expanding Role of Congress and the Supreme Court, 1918–1968
8. Culture Wars, Creationism, the Courts, and the Reagan Revolution, 1968–1990
9. Changing School Boards, Curriculum, and the Constitution, 1990–2000
10. Creationism, Money, the Courts, and the Curriculum: The Battle for the Schools of the Twenty-First Century
Notes
For Further Reading
Index

What People are Saying About This

Milton Gaither

Fraser’s masterful synthesis is the best book in print on the history of religion and education in the United States.The prose is lively, the content authoritative.This wonderful second edition incorporates much new historical scholarship and brings the story up to date.I plan to use it in several of my classes.

Diane L. Moore

Between Church and State is simply the finest history of religion in America available. It does a superb job of mapping the complex developments of the past fifteen years while also including significant new material throughout the text.Importantly, the second volume also retains the hallmark strengths of the first edition: meticulous scholarship, accessible and engaging prose, and an unapologetic advocacy for the values of respect for pluralism as a foundation for deep democracy. Through this volume, Professor Fraser solidifies his position as the premier scholar of the history of religion and education in the United States.

From the Publisher

Between Church and State is simply the finest history of religion in America available. It does a superb job of mapping the complex developments of the past fifteen years while also including significant new material throughout the text. Importantly, the second volume also retains the hallmark strengths of the first edition: meticulous scholarship, accessible and engaging prose, and an unapologetic advocacy for the values of respect for pluralism as a foundation for deep democracy. Through this volume, Professor Fraser solidifies his position as the premier scholar of the history of religion and education in the United States.
—Diane L. Moore, Harvard Divinity School, author of Overcoming Religious Illiteracy: A Cultural Studies Approach to the Study of Religion in Secondary Education

Fraser’s masterful synthesis is the best book in print on the history of religion and education in the United States. The prose is lively, the content authoritative. This wonderful second edition incorporates much new historical scholarship and brings the story up to date. I plan to use it in several of my classes.
—Milton Gaither, Messiah College, author of Homeschool: An American History

The evolution of American doctrine on the relationship of church and state has been forged in contests over the place of religion in public schools and the role of the government in religious schools. And the tensions in the struggle to find the right balance have been heightened as America has become more self-consciously pluralistic about religion and as more and more religion has become a cover for political action. Jim Fraser, in this new edition of his wonderful primer on the subject, provides us all with a vehicle to understand the issues and evaluate the available approaches.
—John Sexton, President, New York University

John Sexton

The evolution ofAmerican doctrine onthe relationship of church and state has been forged in contestsover the place of religion in public schools and the role of the government in religious schools. And thetensions in the struggle to find the right balance have been heightened as America has become more self-consciously pluralistic about religion andas more and more religionhas become a cover for political action. Jim Fraser, in thisnew edition of his wonderful primer on the subject, provides us all with a vehicle to understand the issues and evaluate the available approaches.

Editorial Reviews

. . . engaging volume . . .
—Catholic Southwest

From the Publisher

[A]n excellent summary for the general reading public seeking an understanding of the difficulties of the problem . . . a practical guide to public policy.

History: Reviews of New Books

Between Church and State should interest anyone hoping to gain a better understanding of religion's role in public education.

Dallas Morning News

Fraser offers a highly readable history of education.

Christian Science Monitor

. . . engaging volume . . .

Catholic Southwest

In a book that works better as history than as commentary (but attempts both), Fraser, a professor of history and education at Northeastern University, addresses the thorny relationship between religion and education in America. From Puritan times until recently, he demonstrates, Americans invited God into the classroom. But the terms of that invitation were never clear. Each colony organized its public schools around its own predominant faith, so nationhood brought a dilemma: Whose religion should be taught? The prominent Massachusetts educator Horace Mann offered a solution: use the Bible to inculcate a generic Unitarian faith. But this alienated other Protestants, not to mention freethinkers and Catholics. Later in the 19th century, the influx of Jews, Eastern European Catholics, African-Americans and Native Americans into public education made Mann's faith in a one-size-fits-all religiosity hopelessly na ve. Fraser goes to great lengths to show that even the simplest religious exercise, such as a start-of-the-schoolday prayer, could be unavoidably problematic for many faiths represented in America's classrooms. But while he acknowledges the "potential for cultural tyranny" by groups such as the Christian Coalition, he argues against the current style of purely secular public education and in favor of a "multicultural" approach in which all faiths would have a "place at the table." Fraser offers no specifics about the substance of such an approach, however. Nor does he explain how to avoid the divisiveness that nearly derailed religion-based public education in a less culturally diverse time, two centuries ago. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ordained minister and professor Fraser (history, Northeastern Univ.) has penned a vibrant account of the historic tension between American public schools and established religion. The root of the problem, he argues, is society's inability to define precise and predictable boundaries for allowing religious expressions in schools. To demonstrate this, Fraser traces education history from the 17th through the 20th centuries, pausing occasionally to examine some key turning points, including the arrival of Catholic and Jewish immigrants and the introduction of the theory of evolution to school curriculum. Instead of resolving this conflict, Fraser contends, over time we've forged an uneasy truce whereby public education is, for the most part, devoid of any religion at all. The result, he suggests, is intellectual and spiritual impoverishment. Fraser's work is best read for historical perspective; he proposes few concrete policy suggestions. Still, it is a lively and timely history. Recommended for most public libraries.--Steven Anderson, Gordon Feinblatt Rothman Hoffberger & Hollander, Towson, MD Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Fraser (history and education, Northeastern U.) examines the historical context of today's battles over religious versus secular education in the public schools, offering the framework of democratic multiculturalism as a means of accepting different beliefs and practices in the public school environment, and providing practical steps for educators and citizens. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews