Christianity and Freedom: Volume 1, Historical Perspectives

Description

In Volume 1 of Christianity and Freedom, leading historians uncover the unappreciated role of Christianity in the development of basic human rights and freedoms from antiquity through today. These include radical notions of dignity and equality, religious freedom, liberty of conscience, limited government, consent of the governed, economic liberty, autonomous civil society, and church-state separation, as well as more recent advances in democracy, human rights, and human development. Acknowledging that the record is mixed, scholars document how the seeds of freedom in Christianity antedate and ultimately undermine later Christian justifications and practices of persecution. Drawing from history, political science, and sociology, this volume will become a standard reference work for historians, political scientists, theologians, students, journalists, business leaders, opinion shapers, and policymakers.

Timothy Samuel Shah is associate director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and Global Politics at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He is the author, most recently, of Religious Freedom: Why Now?: Defending an Embattled Human Right and God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics (with Monica Duffy Toft and Daniel Philpott). Allen D. Hertzke is an internationally recognized scholar of religion and politics. He is author of Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights and editor of The Future of Religious Freedom. A past fellow for the Pew Research Center, he directed the study, 'Lobbying for the Faithful: Religious Advocacy Groups in Washington DC'. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

'... A fine collection of essays. It makes a strong case both implicitly and explicitly that freedom owes far more to Christianity than secular accounts recognize. The volume is essential reading for those interested in the history of freedom.' Glenn Sunshine, Journal of Church and State 'Most parts of the long story told by the essays in Volume 1, Historical Perspectives, have been told previously, often by contributors to this volume. But I know of no previous volume in which that long story is told in its entirety.' Nicholas Wolterstorff, Comment 'A particular strength of this collection of essays is that none of the authors denies that Christians and Christian institutions have on many occasions violated the rightful freedoms of others. This frank acknowledgment, however, is accompanied by an argument that permeates many of the papers: that it was, for the most part, Christianity that provided the moral, theological, and cultural principles upon which Christians and others have drawn to condemn unjust coercion.' Samuel Samuel Gregg, The Public Discourse