Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom by Robert Louis Wilken (review)

Wilken begins, "Religious freedom rests on a simple truth: religious faith is an inward disposition of the mind and heart and for that reason cannot be coerced by external force" (p. 1). His sweeping survey chronicles the history of religious liberty in the West, from its geneses to Thomas Jefferson.

Wilken finds the origins of religious liberty in patristic authors such as Lactantius and Tertullian, who coined the term libertas religionis. While other scholars have also noted the importance of Tertullian, Wilken underscores Tertullian's emphasis upon communal practice and not simply private belief. Wilken also warns against reading modern political notions of "natural right" into Tertullian's language of naturalis potestas, which merely entailed the innate power of choice (p. 14). After the Constantinian turn, the patristic emphases were largely muted. It was one thing to call upon religious liberty while enduring persecution, "quite another when holding the reigns of power" (p. 24).

With chapter three, Wilken moves into the Reformation. He tells the fascinating story of the Sisters of St. Clare in Nuremberg, who contended for their "spiritual freedom." When they insisted that they could do nothing "against the faith, against reason, or against our conscience," they sounded similar to Luther's plea at the Diet of Worms in 1521. Also in Nuremberg, a small band of Anabaptist brethren tested Martin Luther's dictum that "faith is a free act, to which no one can be forced" (p. 57). The Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander countered that the authorities could not rule the heart, but they could still regulate public expressions of belief (p. 60).

The fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters focus upon Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands. The Swiss Reformers spoke the language of individual conscience, yet expected everyone to fall in line. An intrinsic tension naturally resulted (p. 71). In Calvin's Geneva, matters came to a head with the execution of Miguel Servetus. In France, the Huguenots made up 10% of the population by 1560. French society was on a church-state collision course, crashing into the St. Bartholomew Day's massacre (1572), followed by the brief reprieve embodied in the Edict of Nantes (1598).

Chapters seven and eight examine the quest for religious freedom in England. In the decades following the Act of Supremacy (1534), both Catholics and Protestants appealed to freedom of conscience, because religious bloodshed was not a one-sided affair. Progressing into the seventeenth century, Wilken highlights the distinctive work of the early English Separatists and Baptists, especially Thomas Helwys, Leonard Busher, and John Murton. Their views of religious liberty intertwined with their ecclesiology, which emphasized voluntarily covenanted "gathered fellowships of true believers" (p. 140). In the colonies, Roger Williams temporarily attached himself to the Baptists and wrote The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution against John Cotton. Wilken interprets the conflict between Williams and Cotton as caused by the two leaders seizing different aspects of Calvin's thought (p. 146).

The closing chapters investigate the roles of John Owen, William Penn, and John Locke. In his conclusion, Wilken acknowledges, "Of the many persons who make an appearance in this book, as I looked back, one who stands out is Thomas Helwys, the English Baptist" (p. 180). Other defenders of religious toleration (including John Locke) were not willing to grant full religious liberty to all, especially to Roman Catholics. Such leaders "had set limits on how far toleration could be extended" (p. 181). On the other hand, Helwys (followed by Roger Williams in the New World) proclaimed a religious liberty for all, including "Turks" (Muslims).

Wilken is an erudite intellectual and a masterful narrator, combining a scholarly rigor with a readable style. Those who are familiar with his patristic scholarship alone may be surprised how facilely he strolls through the medieval and modern terrains. He does stumble slightly on page 137, declaring that "Smyth...