ABSTRACT
In the early 1800s, the US Constitution anchored a weak federalist model of government in which the protections of the Bill of Rights limited the power of the federal government. This chapter explores instances of contestation over the scope of "religion" that found expression in the law and popular culture in nineteenth-century America. It surveys a range of materials from legal cases to fiction to editorial cartoons which shows how the language of "belief" became a primary way of framing the relationship between religion and the law. Legal scholar Steven Green notes that "for years, the nineteenth century was the "forgotten century" for traditional views of church–state relations", whereas it should properly be understood as "the crucible for a religious identity that left an indelible imprint on the culture and its institutions". Derek Chang has coined the term "evangelical nationalism" to describe the "overlapping civic and religious belief in the exceptional, providential destiny of America as a Christian nation".
