The Godless Constitution and the Providential Republic

A secular understanding of the U.S. Constitution ignores key religious elements that informed it, according to this energetic treatise. Smith (The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom), a law professor at U.C. San Diego, argues that though the Constitution never expressly mentions God, it is rooted in the “providentialist” belief that the nation was formed to further a “higher or transcendent purpose.” This notion shaped America in the wake of the Revolutionary War, Smith explains, even if not everyone agreed on the exact nature of the country’s purpose (some conceived of it as specifically Christian, others as a more general “maintenance of freedom and republican government”). The decline of providentialism was fueled by a series of mid-20th-century Supreme Court rulings that seemed to call for a wholly secular understanding of the Constitution. Today, Smith writes, secularism has seeped so deeply into American culture that it threatens to repudiate all “religious aspects of our past” and eradicate national identity, swapping a sense of shared purpose for—at best—ideals of personal fulfillment, or—at worst—a kind of unifying hatred of one another. Effectively interweaving legal and philosophical analysis, the author provides a fresh challenge to standard constitutional discourse, with implications for such issues as free speech, individualism, and religious freedom. This is sure to spark debate. (July)