Chris Beneke on Religion, Markets, and the Founding Era

tonygill — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:00:33 +0000

In the past few decades, scholars have increasingly described the American religious landscape as a “free market” of religion. This often occurs in discussions of the Founding era (late 18th century) with some historians claiming that the architects of the US Constitution meant to create a “free market” of faith. Prof. Chris Beneke, associate professor of history at Bentley University and director of the Valente Center for Arts and Sciences, joins us to discuss the appropriateness of this metaphor and the rational choice approach to religion. Tony gets things started by looking at the defintion of “metaphor” and questioning whether or not scholars are using the term “market” metaphoricallly or whether it is a useful analytic framework. Chris does note several uses of “free market” as metaphor by historians and we then launch into a discussion of the use of microeconomics and rational choice theory to understand religion. Our exploration of this topic moves to the colonial era of the United States and the drafting of the US Constitution, most notably the First Amendment as pertains to religious freedom. Prof. Beneke provides an interesting discussion of what “religious liberty” meant during this historical epoch, noting that “liberty” is a subtly different concept than “choice.” He also makes a strong case for using a political metaphor — democratization — for understanding the religious times of the late 18th century. Recorded: December 22, 2011.

Research On Religion » Frank Lambert

Chris Beneke on Religion, Markets, and the Founding Era