Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson’s Virginia

Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson's Virginia examines the influential statesmen and the political struggles in revolutionary Virginia that played a decisive role in developing a distinctive American approach to religious liberty and church-state relations. This collection of innovative essays by leading scholars profiles the Christian communities in Virginia, analyzes the religious philosophical influences of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and discusses the Virginian contributions to the American experiment in religious liberty.

Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson's Virginia examines the influential statesmen and the political struggles in revolutionary Virginia that played a decisive role in developing a distinctive American approach to religious liberty and church-state relations. This collection of innovative essays by leading scholars profiles the Christian communities in Virginia, analyzes the religious philosophical influences of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and discusses the Virginian contributions to the American experiment in religious liberty. Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson's Virginia presents a fresh perspective on religion's role in Virginian and American political culture and provides a critical reassessment of the existing scholarship in the field.

Part 1 Religious Culture in Jefferson's Virginia
Chapter 2 The Christian Communities, Religious Revivals, and Political Culture of the Central Virginia Piedmont, 1737-1813
Chapter 3 Perceptions of a 'Deist Church" in Early National Virginia
Part 4 Theological and Philosophical Influences on Jefferson and Madison
Chapter 5 The Religious Beliefs of Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 6 Liberalism, Classicism, and Christianity in Jefferson's Political Thought
Chapter 7 Jefferson and Bolingbroke: Some Notes on the Questions of Influence
Chapter 8 James Madison and the Presbyterian Idea of Man and Government
Part 9 Jefferson and Madison on Church and State
Chapter 10 Church-State Debate in the Virginia Legislature
Chapter 11 Mr. Jefferson's "Non-Absolute" Wall of Separation Between Church and State
Chapter 12 Religion and Legal Reforms in Revolutionary Virginia
Chapter 13 James Madison and the First Amendment Establishment of the Religion Clause