Robert Louis Wilken's illuminating and thought-provoking book, Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom, is one of the most discussed books on religious liberty published in recent years. What explains the attention it has received? I cannot say for sure, but a couple matters have been much discussed in connection with its publication and may explain interest in the book. First, Wilken's thesis, that Western conceptions of liberty of conscience and freedom of religion sprung from Christian theology and experience, challenges a popular view that modern notions of religious liberty are a product of the Enlightenment and later secular thought. Second, debates about religious freedom currently roiling American life surely excite much interest in the book, even though it does not discuss current controversies. As the political consensus that affirmed basic principles of religious liberty (a consensus that produced near unanimous passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) has broken down in recent years, punctuated by claims that religious liberty is a “license to discriminate,” there appears to be renewed interest in the development of religious freedom, yielding insights into its meaning and application in contemporary life.

Wilken, a professor emeritus of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia, offers a sweeping survey of the controversies and personalities, from Quintus Tertullian to John Locke, that shaped conceptions of the rights of conscience. In nine chapters, along with an introduction, conclusion, and epilogue, Wilken recounts in roughly chronological order the roots and development of religious freedom in the European experience, illustrating that later generations engaged the ideas and works of those who preceded them. He starts with seeds planted by Tertullian and Lactantius during conflicts encountered by Christians as their “new religion was first making its way in the Roman Empire” (2). This is followed by explorations of the challenges that arose over the next millennium as Christianity emerged as a dominant force and both the church and civil state contended with “heretics” and non-Christians. The story continues with the Reformation and its tumultuous aftermath in Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and England.

Through well-chosen events and personalities, Wilken traces the lineage of concepts and principles that have through the centuries shaped the content, scope, and application of liberty of conscience and freedom of religion in the Western world. His primary focus is on religious freedom, which contends that religious belief rests not on solemn rituals but arises from “an inward disposition of the mind and heart” and, accordingly, is governed by persuasion and choice and cannot be coerced by external force (1). In short, religious faith is a matter that lies solely between God and the believer and is not a matter over which civil authorities have legitimate jurisdiction.

This idea found expression in the thought of early Christians whose strict adherence to monotheism challenged Roman imperial authorities and sacred practices, such as the worship of many gods. Wilken sees the seeds of this idea in the work of Tertullian, who lived two centuries after Jesus and, Wilken claims, was “the first in the history of Western civilization to use the phrase ‘freedom of religion’” (11). “It is only just and a privilege inherent in human nature,” Tertullian wrote, “that every person should be able to worship according to his own convictions; the religious practice of one person neither harms nor helps another. It is not part of religion to coerce religious practice, for it is by choice not coercion that we should be led to religion” (13). Persecution, he warned, is more likely to foster irreligion rather than genuine devotion. Tertullian's views on this matter would impress the thought of succeeding generations, including, as Wilken documents, that of Thomas Jefferson. From these Christian origins, Wilken argues, liberty of conscience emerged in fits and starts long before the Enlightenment.

The idea of religious freedom would be refined and challenged over the centuries as Christians gained the favor of imperial authorities and Christianity extended its cultural and political influence in the Mediterranean basin. It would be severely tested by the Reformation, which precipitated a fracturing of Western Christendom into a multiplicity of competing religious sects and denominations and demanded workable policies of toleration and liberty of conscience. Wilken recounts numerous conflicts between ardent defenders of a regime in which one religion is coercively maintained by civil authority and an arrangement of one political society with multiple confessions that enjoy liberty of conscience. These would be the crucibles from which emerged modern conceptions of religious freedom.

While focused on religious freedom, Wilken is attentive to a cluster of related themes vital to the development of this freedom. He considers, for example, efforts to distinguish the realms of the spiritual and the temporal, the church and the civil state. He notes the claim that religious freedom would count for little if it did not include the ability to act on one's religious beliefs. He credits those who sought to expand the rights of all religious adherents, whether they be—to use the language of an earlier age—Catholics, Reformers, Jews, Turks, or heretics. (He discusses candidly forces within Christendom that deprived dissenters and nonconformists their rights of conscience.) He is also attentive to evolving ideas regarding the right to resist a civil magistrate who infringes on the rights of conscience.

Among the book's strengths is its clear, engaging descriptions of the messy, complicated religious and political conflicts that have framed the pursuit of religious freedom. Wilken also describes in brief but vivid verbal portraits the larger-than-life personalities that populate the narrative, including Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Sebastian Castellio, Johannes Althusius, Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, William Penn, and a host of other noteworthy figures.

The pursuit of religious freedom is among the most important stories in the history of ideas, and it is a story told masterfully, with remarkable clarity and brevity, in Liberty in the Things of God. Wilken's argument is clearly developed and the narrative engaging. This book will appeal to both advanced scholars and general readers.