The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible

Baptist History and Heritage, Spring, 2004 by Michael E. Williams, Sr.

The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible. By James P. Byrd, Jr. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2002. 286 pp.

After being largely overlooked by Americans for over 200 years, Roger Williams and his role in American history emerged in the twentieth century as subjects of many books and articles. This historical amnesia was partially resolved by Rhode Island's belated public recognition of its founder and the creation of a National Park monument in Williams's honor. Additionally, due to Perry Miller's scholarship on the Puritans and Williams forty years ago, modern readers have been reintroduced to the colonial giant. The intensification of ongoing debate about church-state issues in recent years has also led many scholars--historians, political scientists, and theologians--to revisit Williams repeatedly to utilize his ideas in support of their arguments.

Despite this surge of interest in Williams, at least one gap in the literature on him has remained: a closer look at Williams's biblical theology and the ways that he countered the arguments of the Puritan establishment with his own biblical interpretation. James Byrd has helped fill that gap with this work. In The Challenges of Roger Williams, Byrd accurately assesses the centrality of Williams's biblicism and argues convincingly that, first and foremost, Williams was a biblicist.

In addition to the introduction, Byrd develops his study around five chapters and a conclusion. His first chapter includes an outstanding historiographical essay, assessing various interpretative approaches to Williams. Byrd accurately describes the development of literature on Williams, highlighting Miller's crucial contributions in this area. He also criticizes the predisposition of many scholars to contextualize Williams in the light of their culture rather than his. Byrd's opinion, and one with which this reviewer agrees, is that Williams cannot be understood without an accurate concept of his biblical hermeneutic.

The following chapters examine different aspects of Williams's biblical theology. Chapter two discusses his view of the Old Testament, and chapter three reviews the Rhode Island founder's interpretation of Jesus' parable of the weed and the wheat often used to defend the Puritan way. Chapter four deals with one of Williams's most difficult tasks: the interpretation of Paul's epistles, and chapter five summarizes Williams's response to the Puritans' utilization of Revelation. Byrd's conclusion effectively reiterates his main arguments and relates Williams to the context of the twenty-first century.

Byrd's writing is well organized. He includes careful study of Williams's and the Puritan's hermeneutical viewpoints. He also explores Calvin's hermeneutics, as well as Anabaptist and Separatist concepts. His superb appendix provides an exhaustive guide cross-referencing Williams's works and biblical references.

This reviewer's only major criticisms are that the author neither really critiques the validity of Williams's hermeneutics nor does he fully connect the possibility of Anabaptist or English General Baptist influence upon Williams's hermeneutics. Byrd only explains williams's response to Puritan hermeneutics. Some readers may be overwhelmed with the quantity and length of the volume's footnotes. Those seeking extensive biographic detail will need to look elsewhere, but overall this work is an excellent contribution to the literature on Roger Williams. Readers will be grateful to Byrd, Mercer University Press, and series editor Walter Shurden for this fine work. --Reviewed by Michael E. Williams, Sr., dean of humanities and social sciences, professor of history, Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, Texas.

Michael E. (Mike) Williams Sr., is dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of history at Dallas Baptist University, 3000 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, Tex. 75211-9213. 214-333-5276 | Fax: 214-333-6819 E-mail: mikew@dbu.edu