Whose God Rules? Is the United States a Secular Nation or a Theolegal Democracy?

by Walker, Nathan C.; Greenlee, Edwin J.; Blair, Tony

• ISBN13: 9780230117839
• ISBN10: 023011783X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Theolegal democracy defines a political system that allows public officials to use theology in its democratic process to shape law without instituting an official state religion. In Whose God Rules?, preeminent scholars debate the theolegal theory, which describes the gray area between a secular legal system, where theology is dismissed as irrational and a threat to the separation of religion and state, and a theocracy, where a single religion determines all law. The United States is neither a secular nation nor a theocracy, leading scholars to ask whether the United States is a theolegal democracy. If so, whose God rules?

Author Biography

Nathan C. Walker is the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia and a doctoral candidate in Law, Education and Religion at Columbia University. Edwin J. Greenlee is associate director for Public Services in the Biddle Law Library of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Law.

Table of Contents

Foreword--Tony Blair * Introduction to the Theolegal Theory--Nathan C. Walker * Part I: A Theolegal Nation * Editorial Preface to Unit I * Theolegal Discourse--Kent Greenawalt * Religious Fairness--Martha Nussbaum * Religious Secularism--Paula M. Cooey * Part II: Theolegal Officials * Editorial Preface to Unit II * The Religious Right--Alan Dershowitz * Religious Judges--Edwin J. Greenlee * Religious Presidents--Mark J. Rozell * Presidential Abortion Rhetoric--Ted G. Jelen and Brendan Morris * Part III: Theolegal Democracy * Editorial Preface to Unit III * Stem Cell Research--Robert P. George * Evolution v. Creation--Michael Zimmerman * Marriage Equality--Stacey Sobel and Edwin J. Greenlee * Theolegal Marriage--Christine Carlson * Part IV: Theodiplomacy * Editorial Preface to Unit IV * Theotorture of Guantánamo--David L. McColgin * Theolegal Nuclear Weapons Policy--Douglas B. Shaw * Theology of Human Rights--William F. Schultz * Religious Freedom--Joseph K. Grieboski * Conclusion--Edwin J. Greenlee and Nathan C. Walker