Introduction

Abstract

The chapters in this book are the product of a conference entitled “The Call for a New World Order: Thomas Jefferson’s Separation of Religion and State,” held at the Archbishop’s Palace in Prague, Czech Republic, in March 2007. The conference was organized by the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies with the support of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Jef-ferson Institute, and the John Templeton Foundation. The issue of the relationship between religion and state, which was for the most part benignly neglected by social scientists for a long period dur-ing the Cold War, has resurfaced with intensity in the past decade. The resurgence of “fundamentalism” not only in developing nations but also in economically affluent “postmodern” societies has revived the old debate about the interaction between religion and politics; is the fusion—or relative embrace—of the two compatible with toler-ance and individual freedom? In short, can a state sanctioned and governed by divinely ordered norms and laws be at all democratic? Clearly the Founding Fathers of the United States—and above all Thomas Jefferson—believed that liberal democracy could flourish only if a clear separation existed between state and religion.