The Haunted Philosophe James Madison, Republicanism, and Slavery

by Kester, Scott J.

• ISBN13: 9780739121740
• ISBN10: 073912174X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-28
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

James Madison was a man of the Enlightenment and a believer in progress. He viewed America's Revolution as not simply a breaking away from the despotic British Empire, but a breaking away from the Old World monarchial system represented by that empire. He saw the American Revolution as a process whereby man was trying to become free. Although he used Christian vocabulary in his writing, there is in his correspondence an indication of a shift from a Christian kind of mental framework to a Deism common to Enlightenment philosophes. While Madison's papers lack a sense that salvation would come through Christ, they are marked by a strong sense of salvation through republicanism.

Author Biography

Scott J. Kester is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
A Note on Editing	p. ix
Introduction: James Madison in His Context	p. 1
Religion	p. 21
Madison, Christianity, and Deism
Madison's Concern for Religious Freedom and a Separation of Church and State
Madison's Republicanism	p. 49
Republicanism vs. Monarchy and Aristocracy
Manifest Destiny
American Exceptionalism
The British and the French and American Politics
Religious Republicanism
Slavery and the Limits of Madison's Vision	p. 99
Madison's Ideological Conflict over Slavery
Law and Justice
Conclusion	p. 123
Bibliography	p. 127
Index	p. 131
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