Introduction: religion and American disestablishment -- The monk and the bard: Luther's protest to Milton's Protestant vision -- The philosopher and the enthusiast: John Locke and William Penn bring dissenting Protestantism to America -- The Puritan lawyer and the Baptist preacher: Elisha Williams, Isaac Backus, and the rise of dissent in America -- Revolutionary and governor: William Livington and the Anglican control of King's College -- The political theologian and the theological politician: John Witherspoon and James Madison make a national principle -- Epilogue: back to the future: three competing views of church and state
Summary
Arguing that commitments by certain dissenting Protestants to the right of private judgment in matters of Biblical interpretation helped promote religious liberty and religious disestablishment in the early modern West, this text describes a continuous strand of this religious thought - as well as the thinkers who spread it
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 220-231) .and index
