Study of church and state in the United States is incredibly complex. Scholars working in this area have backgrounds in law, religious studies, history, theology, and politics, among others; historically, they have focused on particular angles or dimensions of the church-state relationship, because the field is so vast. The results have mostly been monographs that focus only on narrow cross-sections of the field, and the few works that do aim to give larger perspectives are reference works of factual compendia, which offer little or no analysis.

The Oxford Handbook of Church and State in the United States fills this gap, offering an extensive, multidimensional overview of the field of church and state. Twenty-one essays present a scholarly look at the intricacies and past and current debates that frame the American system of church and state, within five main areas: history, law, theology/philosophy politics and sociology. These essays provide factual accounts, but also address issues, problems, debates, controversies, and - where appropriate - suggested resolution of problems; they also offer analysis of the range of interpretations of the subject offered by various American scholars. This Handbook is an invaluable resource for the study of church-state relations.