Lively Experiment

by Chris Beneke (Editor), Jon Butler (Foreword), Teresa Bejan (Contributor)

Three hundred and fifty years ago, Roger Williams launched one of the world’s first great experiments in religious toleration. Insisting that religion be separated from civil power, he founded Rhode Island, a colony that welcomed people of many faiths. Though stark forms of intolerance persisted, Williams’ commitments to faith and liberty of conscience came to define the nation and its conception of itself. Through crisp essays that show how Americans demolished old prejudices while inventing new ones, The Lively Experiment offers a comprehensive account of America’s boisterous history of interreligious relations.

358 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2015

About the author

Dr Chris Beneke is an Associate Professor of History and Director of Academic Integrity at Bentley University, Massachusetts, USA.

He holds a PhD from Northwestern University (2001), and a BA from Cornell University (1994).

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collections are often awkward, but this one was helped for me by the fact that I attended the conference these chapters were first given as papers at and can benefit from the discussion that we had with each of the authors. I especially appreciate the chapters that include the contributions of Catholics to questions and practices of toleration. Using Roger Williams, who was such a religiously austere, but personally charming person, as a balance to the usual Enlightenment story of toleration, helps bring out a range of possibilities for how this story plays out (in the past and today). Obviously toleration/tolerance hasn't ever been straight forward, and the tension between allowing for people to proselytize and be more public about their (sometimes) offensive beliefs, and possibly even engaging/debating those beliefs, is far different from a naked public square where we all pretend we don't have beliefs/practices for the purposes of getting along. There are 350 years of great stories in this collection.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does religious tolerance exist in America? This collection of essays gives the obvious answer ("yes and no") by looking at specific cases of tolerance and intolerance of religion in American culture and law from the First Great Awakening to 9/11 and beyond. Special mention goes to David Mislin's essay on efforts toward interfaith unity causing intrafaith discord.