THE SUBVERSIVE PURITAN
Roger Williams and freedom of conscience
By Mostyn Roberts
Evangelical Press. 256 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 783 972 470
Roger Williams nurtured a new democracy with full religious liberty – Rhode Island, the world’s first such state. Scholars admire him. The young Oxford political theorist Teresa Bejan urges students to study this ‘hot evangelical’ (‘more Puritan than the Puritans’) to see how a tolerant society can deal with intolerance. But quite possibly no one in your church has heard of him!
Now Mostyn Roberts’ excellent biography – well-informed, scholarly and readable – fills an important gap. Unlike many writers on Williams, the author is British (Welsh, to be exact) and a Christian – he is pastor of Welwyn Evangelical Church.
