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39 Emory L. J. 21 (1990)
Religious Dimensions in the Development of American Constitutionalism

handle is hein.journals/emlj39 and id is 35 raw text is: RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM Donald S. Lutz* Recent scholarship has revealed a litany of influences on American con- stitutionalism, including English common law, English Whig political the- ory, classical republicanism, the Enlightenment in general, and the Scot- tish Enlightenment in particular.' Each of these undoubtedly had some impact, but another aspect of America's political heritage will be empha- sized here, one first identified over half a century ago by Andrew C. Mc- Laughlin: the profound impact of religion on American constitutional de- sign and practice.2 To students of the law, practiced in tracing legal precedents rather than historical evolution, what follows may seem strange at first, but in general terms the logic of constitutional develop- ment follows a pattern of linked documents that is functionally similar to evolving legal precedent. Furthermore, the topic is so large and complex, and the space so limited, that at best only the broad patterns can be laid out. Nor is the manner and extent to which religion has influenced Amer- ican constitutionalism a settled matter. What follows, then, is a general introduction that at times will only be suggestive, although the evidence is much stronger than can be indicated here. Because it represents a kind of historical culmination, or perhaps a crit- ical historical synthesis, the United States Constitution often dominates our attention to the exclusion of other documents in our constitutional tradition, which leads to the unfortunate tendency of studying the Consti- tution in splendid isolation. However, even a quick reading of the docu- ment shows that the states are mentioned over fifty times, either directly * Professor of Political Science, University of Houston. For an overview of the various influences at work on American political thought during the founding era, see B. BAILYN, THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1967); G. WILLS, INVENTING AMERICA: JEFFERSON'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1978); G. WOOD, THE CREATION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, 1776-1787 (1969); Lutz, The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth Century American Political Thought, 78 AM. POL. ScI. REV. 189 (Mar. 1984); and Lundberg & May, The Enlightened Reader in America, 28 AM. Q. 262, 262- 93 (1976). 1 A. McLAUGHLIN, THE FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM (1932). I develop a similar position in D. Lurz, THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM (1988), and much of the argument here is developed further in that longer work.

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