A generation ago, all of the big questions concerning religious
freedom in America seemed to have been resolved. At the very least,
the lines of division between proponents of a wall of separation
between church and state and advocates of religious accommodation
seemed clearly drawn. Since then, increasing religious diversity
and changing functions of government have raised new questions
about what it means to allow the free exercise of religion. In this
book, Bette Novit Evans explores the contemporary understandings of
this First Amendment guarantee in all of its complexity and
ambiguity. Evans situates constitutional arguments about free
exercise within the context of theological and sociological
insights about American religious experience. She surveys and
evaluates several of the most well considered approaches to
religious freedom and applies them to contemporary legal
controversies, examining problems in defining religion and claims
concerning the autonomy of religious institutions. Her conclusions
about religious liberty are embedded in an appreciation of American
pluralism: the guarantee of religious freedom, she argues, can be
understood as an instrument for fostering alternative sources of
meaning within a pluralistic political community.