Review
A Baptist Democracy: Separating God from Caesar in the Land of the Free
Fides et Historia, Vol.44(2)
01 Jul 2012
Abstract
While the early English Baptists were committed to resisting the power of the state, Baptists in the United States slowly abandoned their original ideals in order to embrace Enlightenment principles of individual autonomy, redefining conscience not as something formed by scripture and the Holy Spirit but as "an instrument for justifying personal opinions or beliefs" (21). Ironically, even as Baptists championed the institutional separation of church and state, they came to believe in a moral convergence between the two, making dissent against the state unnecessary and even impossible. The author identifies Baptists as a group traditionally "wary of the state and its coercive power," (160) but this reading of Baptist history reflects contemporary theological trends more than it does the historical record.
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Details
- Title
- A Baptist Democracy: Separating God from Caesar in the Land of the Free
- Creators
- Andrew Smith
- Publication Details
- Fides et Historia, Vol.44(2)
- Publisher
- The Conference on Faith and History; Terre Haute
- Resource Type
- Review
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- English and Philosophy
- Identifiers
- 991021013079104721