The American legal system continually defines and refines the delicate relationship between church and state. This timely volume from the reputable Garland Reference Library of the Humanities series is an alphabetically arranged encyclopedia, carefully edited and authoritatively written, with entries covering a range of issues, events, and people related to the constitutionally protected rights of religious freedom. The 100 contributing writers are all professionally distinguished and associated with solid academic institutions. Precisely written entries are signed and include both lengthy bibliographies and "cases cited" listings when appropriate.Coverage ranges from colonial times to contemporary Supreme Court decisions. Within this broad scope, the text discusses representative themes without losing thoroughness. Rulings are analyzed, theories are considered, and biographical details are supplied. Among the entries are Black churches in the antebellum South, Blasphemy in American law, The Good Samaritan, Jefferson and religion, Labor law and religion, and Sunday regulations in the nineteenth century. There are substantive discussions of individual religious traditions, relevant legal decisions, and a number of Supreme Court justices. Most entries are at least a page in length; longer ones, such as School prayer , run to more than five pages. The encyclopedia concludes with a helpful index of cases and a subject index, the value of which is diminished by the fact that it supplies only page numbers (more than 200 page numbers are listed under First Amendment, for example).This title takes a more scholarly and historical approach than another recent volume, ABC-CLIO's Religion and the Law [RBB Jl 00], which focuses mainly on current issues. Religion and American Law is recommended for academic and large public library reference collections.