Separating Church and State: ROGER WILLIAMS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY [Paperback]

Timothy L. Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

Roger Williams, founder of the colony of Rhode Island, is famous as an apostle of religious tolerance and a foe of religious establishments. In Separating Church and State, Timothy Hall combines impressive historical and legal scholarship to explore Williams's theory of religious liberty and relate it to current debate. Williams's fierce religious dogmatism, Hall argues, is precisely what led to his religious tolerance, making him one of the most articulate champions in history of the argument for the necessary separation of church and state.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With interpretive subtlety and great narrative flair, Hall succeeds admirably. His book deserves a wide audience and intensive course assignment... Just as Williams emerges from Hall's pages as a complex hero, his Puritan persecutors are fully human opponents rather than cardboard villains. Explaining both Williams and the Massachusetts authorities in their own terms, Hall makes them as intelligible to us as they were to each other -- no small achievement." -- Jame Kamensky, The Journal of American History

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252066642
• ISBN-13: 978-0252066641
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A music composition major originally in college, I ultimately graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Houston, then attended graduate school in religious studies at Rice University for two years before finally moving on to law school at the University of Texas. I practiced trial law for several years in Austin, Texas before joining the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1989, where my research and teaching focused on law and religion and legal ethics. Eventually, I became an academic administrator at the University of Mississippi, working for five years as an associate provost. In 2007 my family and I moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, where I became the ninth president of Austin Peay State University. My wife, Lee, and I are high school sweethearts and have been married more than thirty years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh insights to understanding the First Amendment, November 8, 2004

By 

E.R. Sanders (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Separating Church and State: ROGER WILLIAMS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY (Paperback)

Even though I am a history student, I believe this book would be very intriguing to anyone who wants to understand the ideological formation of separation of church and state. Hall argues that First Amendment theory owes just as much to dissenting Protestantism and evangelical passion, as it does to Enlightenment skepticism. Hall contends that an over zealous reliance on Jefferson and Madison sources has left First Amendment jurisprudence theoretically impoverished. "We therefore cannot pretend to give historical content to the religion clauses without taking seriously their origin, at least in part, in a believing parentage, and Williams is a key theoretician of this parentage." (117) Hall produces a historical work that tries to understand all of the thought contributors to freedom of religion including Locke, Backus, Jefferson and Madison, while focusing on Williams. Yes it is true, this is no Stephen King or John Grisham novel, but it is an excellent piece of historical work on a current issue that has paramount importance for our lives today. And it is spelled I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A-C not, "iMsomniac".