Lecture slides from "Introduction to Religious Studies" at the University of Alabama. Written by Prof. Michael J. Altman How did the Founders of the United States imagine the category "religion?"

1. The American
Problem of Religion

2. Europe:
Establishment

3. Dissenters

4. Colonial America:
Established Churches in the Colonies
Massachusetts: Congregationalists (Puritans)
Virginia: Church of England (Anglicans)

5. Establishment vs. Dissenters
• Anglicans
• Congregationalists
• Baptists
• Quakers
• Catholics
• Jews
• Everyone else…

6. The Revolutionary War
Tyranny!
– Religious and political tyranny the same
– “No Lords temporal or spiritual”

7. Religion in New America:
4 Problems
1. Freedom from religion & freedom of
religion.
2. Dissent: What do we do with it?
3. Virtue: How do we keep citizens moral?
4. Is a nation full of “churches of one”
sustainable?

8. James Madison
“Memorial and Remonstrance” (1785)
Establishment is bad because:
1. Infringes on the citizen.
2. Damages the state.
3. Contaminates religion.

9. Quiz #1
Let’s practice!

10. A being assumed to be intentional
is called ________.
a. an essence
b. an agent
c. theology
d. anthropomorphism
b. an agent

11. _______________ and
___________ are two approaches
to religion we will not use in this
class.

12. The Deists
Believed natural religion could be found through applying reason to
nature. Rejected revelation.
Believed natural religion was universal and open to all through the use
of human reason.

13. In a paragraph, describe the problems for
“religion” in the new United States.