Date
4-21-2010
Department
History
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Chair
Samuel C Smith
Primary Subject Area
History, United States
Keywords
Baptists, Jefferson, Madison, Presbyterians, Religion, Virginia
Recommended Citation
Bailess, Shelley Dawn, ""An Asylum to the Persecuted and Oppressed of Every Nation and Religion": Dissenters and Liberals in the Drive for Religious Freedom in Virginia" (2010). Masters Theses. 130.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/130
Abstract
The struggle for full religious liberty in Virginia encompassed nearly two decades and generated thousands of documents in the form of petitions and legislation. In spite of historical tendencies to claim primacy in the victory of liberty over establishment in matters of religion for one denomination or individual, it was a unique triangulation of religious dissenters and prominent legislators that resulted in the separation of church and state in Virginia. The ideas that brought these seemingly disparate groups together emerged from theological, as well as political ideas that were prevalent in 18th century thought. The passage of Jefferson's Statute Establishing Religious Liberty in Virginia was the product of a unique crystallizing moment in American history that married Renaissance humanism, Reformation theology, and Enlightenment philosophy in the form of Scottish Common Sense Realism.
