The Law in the United States in its Relation to Religion

Authors

Edwin C. Goddard, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Man is a religious being. To him, everywhere and always, religion and religious institutions have been and, will be of prime concern. He is also a social being. As such he has always found it necessary to live in an organized society, under some form of government. Man never has lived to himself alone. Government is not an invention, a necessary evil, to which men submit. On the contrary, from the most primitive beginnings it has been man's natural though imperfect instrument for controlling and developing the social estate so essential to his very existence. And universally this government has been more or less closely related to religious institutions. With primitive man his government, however crude, was not more solicitous for his welfare than for that of his gods. It could not be otherwise, so long as each tribe and nation had its tribal and national deities, whose fortunes were one with those of the people of that tribe or nation, who fought for, worked for and provided for that people, but not for any other tribe or nation; who triumphed with the success, and were defeated and overthrown with the failure, in battle of the people whose gods they were. In the heathen world the state embraced as its chief department, the institutions and provisions for worship, for protecting and propagating religion. It can scarcely be said that there existed, as a separate entity, the Church; a state included church and state, unseparated and inseparable.

Recommended Citation

Edwin C. Goddard, The Law in the United States in its Relation to Religion, 10 Mich. L. Rev. 161 (1912).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol10/iss3/1