Liberty in the Things of God
eBook - PDF

Liberty in the Things of God

The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom

  1. 224 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Liberty in the Things of God

The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom

About this book

From one of the leading historians of Christianity comes this sweeping reassessment of religious freedom, from the church fathers to John Locke

“Robert Louis Wilken’s new masterpiece.”—George Weigel, First Things

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.”

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Yes, you can access Liberty in the Things of God by Robert Louis Wilken in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & History of Christianity. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

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