Political Philosophy and Ethics discussion
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Roger Williams (ca. 1603-1683) and Seventeenth-Century Rhode Island Government
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For those who have read the initial version of my review of Decoding Roger Williams, posted two days ago, please note that I have now modified the last two paragraphs of it. The revised review is here.
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I made an minor edit to this review on October 14, 2014.
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Although Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, among others, supported liberty of conscience and separation of religion and government on both the federal and state governmental levels, some others of the founding generation were not so sure. The courts did not apply the First Amendment Religion Clauses to state and local governments until well into the twentieth century. As we have seen, people were compelled in Massachusetts to support religion by taxation until 1833. During much of the nineteenth century, various judicial, political, and religious leaders claimed that Christianity was part of the common law and that the United States was a "Christian nation." Although no state, after 1833, formally supported any church with tax dollars or made any particular denomination a legally established church, religious test oaths remained in many states for political office holders and for witnesses in judicial proceedings. People were prosecuted for blasphemy and for the related offense of cursing. Protestantism reigned supreme, and Roman Catholics and Jews, among others, suffered legal and other discrimination. Public school children were compelled to read, or listen to readings, from the King James Version of the Bible—a Protestant translation that differed from the Catholic Bible and a practice that was anathema to Roman Catholics in the absence of real time interpretation by their priests. School children had to recite the Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer. Courts routinely held that morality was essential to public education, that Protestantism was necessary to morality, and that Protestant religious views and values could therefore be legally enforced in school settings.
Only during the last few decades of the nineteenth century were these religiously motivated legal disabilities gradually removed. However, the early twentieth century saw a conservative Protestant backlash, and some of the progress made in the later nineteenth century was reversed. The twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries have witnessed a continuation of these "culture wars." In reaction to mid-twentieth-century Supreme Court attempts to reinstate the church-state separation views of Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, the Religious Right resurrected the nineteenth-century dogma that the United States is a Christian nation that must legislate Christian theology and morality. Non-Christians must, in this view, bow to the will of the majority—a position directly in opposition to that of the "Father of the Constitution," James Madison, not to mention Thomas Jefferson and Roger Williams. From time to time during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, various groups actually supported constitutional amendments that would revise the First Amendment to state explicitly that the United States is a Christian nation.130
130. It is not possible, within the space limitations of this book, to explain and corroborate the details of these historical developments, but the interested reader is referred to the following books that treat them in considerable depth: Steven K. Green, The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); David Sehat, The Myth of American Religious Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); and Benjamin T. Lynerd, Republican Theology: The Civil Religion of American Evangelicals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). Although I do not agree with everything in these books (and, indeed, they sometimes disagree with each other in relatively minor matters), these authors often elaborate indisputable and relevant historical developments in substantial detail with copious references to primary sources.
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Roger Williams had a profoundly ethical approach to the world. Although his ethical sense was based on the life and teachings of Jesus, it was not necessarily limited to a religious perspective. As Baptist ethicist Paul D. Simmons observed in a book published in 2000, "Ethics is a common ground for discussions between Baptists and humanists. The Roger Williams tradition among Baptists provides a sympathetic and at times compatible, if not always consistent, point of interest and identification with humanism."108 Thomas Jefferson, who did not accept the theology of the New Testament, wrote to John Adams that one must strip the artificial theology of Jesus's epigones out of the New Testament, and "[t]here will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man."109 Jefferson undertook this task for himself and his friends.110
108. Paul D. Simmons, introduction to Freedom of Conscience: A Baptist/Humanist Dialogue , ed. Paul D. Simmons (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000), 12.
109. Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, October 12, 1813, in The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, ed. Lester J. Cappon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 384.
110. See ibid., 384n72; Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English, with essays by Harry R. Rubenstein, Barbara Clark Smith, and Janice Stagnitto Ellis (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2011).
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"Anticipating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Roger Williams held that a person should neither be 'constrained to yield obedience to such doctrines and worships' dictated by the state (Establishment Clause) nor 'persecuted because he holdeth or practiseth what he beleeves in conscience to be a Truth' (Free Exercise Clause). Such freedom from constraint or restraint in spiritual matters was subject, of course, to the requirement that a person be 'without breach of the Civill or Citie-peace, properly so called.' For example, a person could not burn his child in imitation of Abraham and escape criminal punishment, even though he did it under pretense of zeal and conscience. 'In such cases it may be truly said, the Magistrate beares not the sword in vaine . . . .'"
(Endnotes with citations and Roger Williams's italics omitted.)
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The table of contents follows. (I will add pagination once it is formatted for the paperback edition.)
CONTENTS
Maps
Abbreviations
Preface
Note on Quotations, Citations, and Dates
Prologue
Chapter 1. Old England: Roger Williams's Early Years (ca. 1603-30)
Chapter 2. Roger Williams Versus the Massachusetts Bay Theocracy (1631-36)
Chapter 3. A New Beginning: The Founding of Providence and the Other Narragansett Bay Settlements (1636-43)
Chapter 4. Return Visit to England: The First Publications and the First Charter in the Midst of Civil War (1643-44)
Chapter 5. The Bloudy Tenent Series (1644-52) and Christenings make not Christians (1646)
Chapter 6. Providence Plantations (1644-51)
Chapter 7. Roger Williams's Second Visit to England (1652-54)
Chapter 8. Political Philosopher and Counselor (1654-83)
Chapter 9. Roger Williams and the Founding of the United States of America
Chapter 10. The Continuing Influence and Relevance of Roger Williams
Appendix A: Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
Appendix B: Theocracy in Seventeenth-Century New England and Sixteenth-Century Geneva
Appendix C: Land Distribution and Freemanship in Seventeenth-Century Providence
Appendix D. Roger Williams and John Locke
Note on Primary and Secondary Sources
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the Author
Index
Copyright © 2015 by Alan E. Johnson.
All rights reserved.
More information about the contents of the book will be provided at the time it is published.
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Mimi prepared a very interesting video of this historical journey, and she has posted this video here.
On June 19, 2015, I was a presenter and panelist in a session of the NCIS conference. An outline of my presentation can be located here.
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For further information about Jeff and his views, see his posts 68 et seq. in the New Member Introductions; General Information topic of this group.
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The paperback edition of my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience was published on July 7, 2015. This book is 662 pages from cover to cover, including about 380 pages of text and 190 pages of endnotes.
Alan E. Johnson
(revised October 26, 2022)
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Alan E. Johnson
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Congrats Alan - good interview: clear and concise. Ron
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Thanks, Ron.
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On August 8, 2015, I was interviewed about my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience. The YouTube link to the interview is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGRl5.... It is about 4.5 minutes in length.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
(revised October 26, 2022)
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I have posted here an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the paperback under the title "The Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts Bay (1635-36)." The endnotes for this excerpt appear after the text.
The book is also available in a Kindle e-book edition.
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Answer: There are two reasons.
First, I discovered when researching this book that many historians over the centuries have given inaccurate accounts of Roger Williams and his times. Not all historians are guilty of such inaccuracies, but many of them, especially those writing before the twenty-first century, have asserted things about Williams and his contemporaries that simply have no basis in the primary sources and, in fact, often contradict what is in the primary sources. I have made every attempt in this book to avoid such errors. One of the methods I have used to ensure accuracy is to quote specific statements made by Williams and others in their writings. For example, many historians have asserted that Williams only intended to protect the church from the state and not the state from the church. I disprove this assertion by quotations from Williams's own writings that state quite the contrary.
Second, although many of Williams's letters were written in haste and with extreme brevity (likely for the purpose of conserving paper, which was scarce), others are literary masterpieces of almost Shakespearean quality. Similarly, although some of Williams's published works follow the rules of the outdated and tedious early modern disputation genre, some specific statements within those works, as well as statements in other writings outside the disputation genre, are literary and philosophical gems that no summary or paraphrase can adequately capture.
This book is not a light read and is not for everyone. Although it may take the reader a while to become acclimated to the seventeenth-century language of the quotations, the effort results in a genuine understanding of early modern history and of Williams's radical thought. I try to assist with bracketed translations of words and phrases not familiar to twenty-first-century readers. But if you are looking for something that will not challenge your mind (and very possibly your preconceptions), this book is not for you.
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Alan E. Johnson
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David Anthony has provided an excellent and fascinating scholarly essay on early Christianity and its transformation by Constantine and his successors under the title Entangled Gospels: Multidoxy and Early Christianity.
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This excerpt examines the interaction of historical figures influenced by Roger Williams (especially Stephen Hopkins and Isaac Backus) with such late eighteenth-century US Founders as John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine, and Thomas Cushing. This interaction occurred most notably in an October 14, 1774 evening meeting of some of the delegates to the First Continental Congress with Baptist and Quaker representatives at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. At this meeting, Stephen Hopkins (Revolutionary War pamphleteer, former Rhode Island governor, and friend of Benjamin Franklin), Baptist leader Isaac Backus, Quaker leader Israel Pemberton, and others confronted the Massachusetts delegates to the Continental Congress about that colony's continuing religious discrimination against and persecution of Baptists and Quakers. Massachusetts had imprisoned and whipped Baptists and executed Quakers in the name of the "true religion" during the seventeenth century. Although Massachusetts public officials no longer whipped and executed religious dissenters, eighteenth-century Massachusetts laws and governmental practices still discriminated against them.
Other portions of Chapter 9 (not included in this excerpt) address the direct or indirect influence of Roger Williams (ca. 1603-83) on such famous US Founders as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and on other important public figures of that generation such as Richard Cranch, Jeremy Belknap, David Ramsay, and Royall Tyler.
Alan, I just posted my review of John Barry's work on Williams and have taken the liberty of noting your work and our discussions in this group. As I wrote in my review, I have taken the plunge in in my study and understanding of this remarkable man and look forward to getting to your book on him. Many thanks for your repeated references to him and his enormous contributions to the American soul and experience,
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Thanks, Charles. You will be a real expert on Roger Williams after reading both John Barry's book and my book on him. I like Barry's book, though I had decided to write my own account of Roger Williams long before reading (or even becoming aware of) it. You will see that my approach and sometimes my interpretations differ from Barry's. I emphasize some historical and philosophical developments more than he, and vice versa. I like to rely as much as possible on the documented facts, whereas Barry is sometimes more interpretative and speculative. Barry and I disagree on some details of Williams's own history, though those differences are not as great as my differences with many other historians. I have an entire chapter devoted to Williams's influence on the US Founders, which I believe breaks new ground in important respects. I also have a long, scholarly Appendix D entitled "Roger Williams and John Locke," which sets forth historical connections between Williams and Locke that no other historian or scholar has, to my knowledge, noticed, though most commentators on Williams are aware that Locke, as contrasted to Williams, did not recognize liberty of conscience for Roman Catholics and atheists. I also discuss, as have some other historians, Jefferson's critique of Locke on this issue. Indeed, the views of Jefferson and Madison on freedom of conscience and church-state separation were much closer to those of Williams than to the doctrines of Locke, though Williams's theology was, of course, different from that of Jefferson and Madison.
I have tried to keep the more scholarly discussions in endnotes and appendices in order to make the book accessible to the general reader as well as to the scholar. Like Barry, however, I often quote Roger Williams and other seventeenth-century figures in the main text of my book without modernizing the language (though I often provide bracketed explanations of outdated terminology). I have been informed that this procedure is sometimes a challenge to the modern reader. However, some general readers have also informed me that they eventually got used to the language and that they appreciated its colorful nature as well as my striving for historical accuracy. Williams's language is not as difficult to read as Shakespeare's, who lived in an earlier generation. Like Shakespeare, however, Williams often used apt metaphors and pithy expressions that pungently expressed his meaning. Some of his public letters and other writings are masterpieces of language, but one has to make a somewhat greater effort to understand what he is saying than it takes to read, say, much of the ordinary written output of our own time. Like reading Shakespeare, the effort is rewarding.
I'll be interested in your thoughts regarding my book after you have read it.
See also the topic "Types of Government: Theocracy" in this "Political Philosophy" folder.
April 23, 2016 Addendum: My book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience (Pittsburgh: Philosophia Publications, 2015) was published in July 2015.