The Naked Public Square is a 1984 book written by then-Lutheran pastor Richard John Neuhaus about the relationship between religion, culture, and politics in the context of 1980s American secularism.
The book raises the complaint about the way strict separationists read the First Amendment is that it leaves the public square “naked”, by which it is meant that the public square is now “bare” of religious speech. This, in turn, is thought to foster and encourage public hostility towards religion, something which is actually forbidden by the First Amendment.
The book was very popular among cultural and political Christians, especially those who defend a Christian intellectual culture, as well as those defending pro-life values. Its social impact was somewhat comparable to William F. Buckley, Jr.'s God and Man at Yale, which denounced similar socio-political phenomena at major American universities.
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or square:
“People’s backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)
“If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire respect.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)