Abstract
This chapter focuses on Thomas Jefferson’s philosophical thought about religious freedom. There is a consistent thread running through many of Jefferson’s ideas about religious liberty, ideas that were on display in his home state of Virginia, the U.S. Constitution, and the University of Virginia, which he founded. Jefferson believed that true religion could not be compelled and that robust religious liberty, far from being deleterious to the cause of truth and piety, would actually lead people to a better understanding of religious truth, particularly the ethics of Jesus, which Jefferson saw as necessary for a healthy, diverse democracy.
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Further Reading
Sheldon, Garrett Ward, ed. 1990. Religions and Politics: Major Thinkers on the Relation of Church and State. New York and Berne: Peter Lang Publishing.
A collection of major theologians (St. Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, etc.) on politics, as well as American documents on Supreme Court cases on church and state.
Sheldon, Garrett Ward, and Daniel Driesbach, eds. 2000. Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson’s Virginia. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
A collection of essays by scholars on politics, culture, and religion in colonial and early republican Virginia.
Sheldon, Garrett Ward. 1991. The Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
A survey of the philosophical sources of Jefferson’s political theory including views on religious liberty.
References
Jefferson, Thomas. 1902. Writings. Vol. 1–8. Ed. Paul Leicester Ford. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
———. 1905. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. 1–17. Ed. Albert Ellery Bergh. Washington, DC: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association.
———. 1943. The Complete Jefferson. Ed. Saul Padover. New York.
———. 1959. The Adams-Jefferson Letters, Vol 2. Ed. Lester J. Cappon. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
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Sheldon, G.W. (2023). American Church—State Relations: Jefferson’s Conception of Religious Freedom. In: Holzer, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Religion and State Volume II. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35609-4_27
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