Customer Reviews

Separating Church and State: ROGER WILLIAMS AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 "We therefore cannot pretend to give historical content to the religion clauses without taking seriously their origin, at least in part, in a believing parentage, and Williams is a key theoretician of this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".