New Review: Undomesticated Dissent by Curtis W. Freeman

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The Christian Century has published my review of Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Nonconformity by Curtis W. Freeman. This superb study of the religious and political dissent in radical English Protestantism ends with a constructive proposal about how this heritage continues to inform protest movements, for the good of the commonwealth, today. Here's a teaser:

In the 1580s, religious dissenter Henry Barrow languished in London’s Fleet Street prison, taunted by Anglican divine Lancelot Andrewes for his stubborn refusal to acknowledge the spiritual headship of King James I. Across the pond and the centuries, Baptist farmer-preacher Clarence Jordan endured derision and threats in the rigidly segregated rural Georgia community where he founded Koinonia Farm, an experiment in Christian communal living.

What thread ties these two together? Ac­cording to Curtis Freeman, both Barrow and Jordan stand in a living stream of faithful religious dissenters who have clung to freedom of worship, liberty of conscience, and, above all, the sovereign freedom of Jesus Christ, the one true Lord and King.

You can read the rest of the review here.

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