1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793447503321

Autore

Wilken Robert Louis

Titolo

Liberty in the Things of God : The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom / / Robert Louis Wilken

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, CT : , : Yale University Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

0-300-24549-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (247 pages)

Disciplina

233.7

Soggetti

Liberty - Religious aspects - Christianity

Freedom of religion

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Endowed with Freedom -- 2. A Christian Society -- 3. The Two Swords: Reformation in Germany -- 4. Custodians of Both Tables: Switzerland -- 5. Two Religions in One City: France -- 6. Freedom of Worship: The Netherlands -- 7. Sturdy Piety: Catholics in England -- 8. Seeking Faith's Pure Shrine: English Separatists -- 9. Liberty Necessary unto Human Nature -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Thomas Jefferson and Tertullian -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Index of Biblical Citations

Sommario/riassunto

From one of the leading historians of Christianity comes this sweeping reassessment of religious freedom, from the church fathers to John Locke   In the ancient world Christian apologists wrote in defense of their right to practice their faith in the cities of the Roman Empire. They argued that religious faith is an inward disposition of the mind and heart and cannot be coerced by external force, laying a foundation on which later generations would build.   Chronicling the history of the struggle for religious freedom from the early Christian movement through the seventeenth century, Robert Louis Wilken shows that the origins of religious freedom and liberty of conscience are religious, not political, in origin. They took form before the Enlightenment through the labors of men and women of faith who believed there could be no



justice in society without liberty in the things of God. This provocative book, drawing on writings from the early Church as well as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, reminds us of how "the meditations of the past were fitted to affairs of a later day."