Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs -> Constitutionally Correct

Religion & Law

: Constitutionally Correct

Spheres of Sovereignty: Church Autonomy Doctrine and the Theological Heritage of the Separation of Church and State

By Alliance Alert

Today, there are few phrases in public policy parlance more misinterpreted, misquoted, and misapplied than the ?separation of church and state.? The church autonomy cases shed light on the issue from an often-neglected angle when viewed in light of the theology and church history that preceded them. In this article, we shall endeavor to examine, first, the theological underpinnings of separation, and, second, the church-history context in which the theology was developed, with an eye for those sources that most directly influenced the American view of church and state. Finally, we shall look at the outworking of this theology and history in the church autonomy cases.

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on January 22, 2009 (boomark / email).