""I believe that complete separation of church and state is one of those miraculous things which can be best for religion and best for the state, and the best for those who are religious and those who are not religious."" - Leo Pfeffer Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. These sixteen words epitomize a radical experiment unique in human history . . . It is the purpose of this book to examine how this experiment came to be made, what are the implications and consequences of its application to democratic living in America today, and what are the forces seeking to frustrate and defeat that experiment. (From the Foreword) Leo Pfeffer (1910-1993) was a lawyer, humanist, and constitutional scholar. He was Professor of Constitutional Law at Long Island University, Brooklyn and a member of the American Jewish Congress. He wrote extensively on issues of religious liberty and was a leading voice in the ""strict separation"" interpretation of the establishment clause.