American Modernity and the Jews

What is the place of religion in the American polity? Which view of this matter is good for America, and which for the Jews? This essay first elaborates the now-dominant libertarian vision of religion in the American republic, a view prevalent among Jews and endorsed by the Jewish polity, by means of a discussion and critique of Leo Vfeffer's God, Caesar and the Constitution: The Court as Referee of Church-State Confrontation. It is argued that the Constitution is improperly understood as a blueprint for a secular "open society/' founded on the principle of radical individual autonomy, to be protected against both church and state by a supreme, rights-defending judiciary.