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Full Description
This book focuses on the development of Baptist views on religious liberty. It explores the arguments for freedom of conscience and full religious toleration that were formulated in the seventeenth century by the first Baptists, a particularly persecuted religious current of the English Reformation. The author quotes and comments on fragments of theological treatises and pamphlets by the first London Baptists (Thomas Helwys, John Murton, Leonard Busher, Samuel Richardson, Christopher Blackwood), as well as those seeking religious freedom in New England (Roger Williams, John Clarke). Whilst the book deals with the history of Baptist doctrine in the field of religious policy, it also offers a commentary on contemporary phenomena in which many groups of this ecclesiastical tradition in the United States of America play an active and important role (i.e. the so-called New Religious Right). The study is presented at a moment when issues related to the limits of religious freedom, religious tolerance, and relations between church and state are still present in public debate despite ongoing secularization in the Western world. It will be of particular interest to scholars of Baptist and religious history as well as religion and politics.
Contents
1. Introduction PART ONE. THE FREEDOM OF BELIEVERS AS A PRECONDITION OF THE PURITY OF THE CHURCH: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE IN THE THOUGHT OF THE FIRST BAPTISTS 2. Part One: Introductory remarks 3. General Baptists: Freedom of Conscience in the Writings of Thomas Helwys, John Murton, and Leonard Busher 4. Particular Baptists: Free Conscience in the Deliberations of Christopher Blackwood and Samuel Richardson 5. Part One: Concluding Remarks PART TWO. CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS IN THE THOUGHT OF THE FIRST BAPTISTS IN AMERICA: "BRIERS AND THORNS" IN THE "GARDEN" OF THE CHURCH OF MASSACHUSETTS 6. Part Two: Introductory Remarks 7. Roger Williams: A Man of the "Wilderness" Longing for the "Garden" 8. John Clarke: A Newport Baptist, Peacher and Statesman of the "Living Experiment" 9. Part Two: Concluding Remarks 10. Summary Bibliography Index
