Furnace: Roger Williams in EnglandXlibris Corporation, 2006 M06 16 - 481 pages LONDON, 1612. A dealer in cloth is being burned at the stake in a macabre ceremony of theological cleansing. He would be an ordinary man but for his willingness to die in extraordinary pain for his religious convictions. In the festive crowd stands a boy of nine--too young, some would say--to begin to comprehend the meaning of this judicial murder. But the impact of this burning will alter the boys life and sent him on an unrelenting quest for answers from his society. He is Roger Williams, future founder of Rhode Island, the sanctuary for those who would worship as they please. But it is still thousands of miles and a score of years before his thinking will take flight into the doctrine of soul liberty. The author evokes the stages of self-awareness as the young Roger gropes with doubts about the validity of a church-state collaboration. His orthodox father threatens to throw him into the street, and neither his parish church nor his schoolmasters are of any help in his search for a just and reassuring God. The random death of a beloved friend from the plague of 1623 so shocks him that he ascends an empty pulpit to admonish the Almighty. This rash confrontation does not go unnoticed by the bishops spies. From this moment he is a marked man in the eyes of the Anglican Church. But Roger has his friends as well. There is Chief Justice Edward Coke who exposes him to the world of power and who protects him from the fallout of his rashness; his brother Sydrach who introduces him to the strong waters of Dutch liberalism; and young sensible Mary Barnard who helps him back on his path after a disastrous love affair and who accompanies him across the ocean to a rendezvous with destiny. To Roger Williams belongs the honor of being the foremost advocate in the New World of the separation of church and state. For his stance in defense of religious liberty he was reviled and even exiled from his home in Massachusetts Bay colony. But how did the founder of Rhode Island colony as a refuge for non-conformists get to be the sort of person he was? This journey from a childhood at odds with father, schoolteachers and the church to the maturity of a self-possessed champion of religious freedom is carefully chronicled in this fictional autobiography. Because religious experience, more than abstract ideas, permeate the book, it makes no pretense to being a theological tract. It is instead a lucid and compelling account of a young mans climb to greatness in the confines of 17th century Jacobean England. The statue of Roger Williams stands next to Calvins in Geneva, but the central figure of this fast-paced, almost cinematic, novel, is no creature of stone. His mistakes were all too many, his self-betrayals all too frequent, but he clearly emerges as the complex, courageous apostle of non-conformity whom few of his contemporaries could tolerate, let along understand. History casts Roger Williams passionate defense of religious freedom in an age of intolerance as a landmark in the evolution of 17th century thought and practice, but this is a posthumous recognition, and the boy attending the fateful burning in 1612 could hardly anticipate where his path would lead. FURNACE takes us through the many intense confrontations that molded his revolutionary stand on the separation of church and state and helps us better to understand the relationship of our own church and state in the light of his spiritual journey |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 85
Page 9
... door to see me in costume explaining my banishment to the Narragansett Bay and my friendship with the Indians there. This was a rehearsal in apprehending the legend of the real Williams which, it seemed to me, he set about consciously ...
... door to see me in costume explaining my banishment to the Narragansett Bay and my friendship with the Indians there. This was a rehearsal in apprehending the legend of the real Williams which, it seemed to me, he set about consciously ...
Page 17
... door, ducked under a dray horse immersed in his nosebag and threaded my way past the cursing carters and loud-mouthed apprentices streaming in both directions until I reached the stillness of the church grounds. Father Spenser opened ...
... door, ducked under a dray horse immersed in his nosebag and threaded my way past the cursing carters and loud-mouthed apprentices streaming in both directions until I reached the stillness of the church grounds. Father Spenser opened ...
Page 18
... door. “Christian charity sometimes asks of us that the bodies of offending brethren be punished so that their souls might benefit.” “How benefit, Father?” “By a process of purification. Flames, you will agree, are a most suitable means ...
... door. “Christian charity sometimes asks of us that the bodies of offending brethren be punished so that their souls might benefit.” “How benefit, Father?” “By a process of purification. Flames, you will agree, are a most suitable means ...
Page 20
... door and launched me into the noisy street. The door snapped shut, and I was among the throng of wagons and pedestrians, bullying their way toward unknown destinations. As was the wont of brothers in those days, Sydrach and I shared the ...
... door and launched me into the noisy street. The door snapped shut, and I was among the throng of wagons and pedestrians, bullying their way toward unknown destinations. As was the wont of brothers in those days, Sydrach and I shared the ...
Page 50
... door frame in that know-it-all posture that I had come to hate. “I was not!” “Desmond Scully beats you up because you're a sissy,” said she of the hard-favored face. 3. I bleared my tongue at her and called her the. 50 3.
... door frame in that know-it-all posture that I had come to hate. “I was not!” “Desmond Scully beats you up because you're a sissy,” said she of the hard-favored face. 3. I bleared my tongue at her and called her the. 50 3.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
arms Bartholomew Legate bells Bible breath Catherine chair church corner cried dance dear desk didn’t door Drake dream Elizabeth Hatton eyes face Father Spenser feet fingers floor gave God’s hand Hatfield Broad Oak Hatton House He’s head hear heard High Laver horse I’ve Jane knew Lady Barrington Lady Hatton Lady Masham laughed London looked Lord Lord’s ma’am Mama Mama’s man’s Mary Mary Barnard matter Mayhap mind never night Papa Papa’s Pietr prayer pulpit Rachel reached Roger Williams Sepulchre’s sermon shouted side silence Sir Edward Sir William smile Smithfield someone Star Chamber steps stood stopped street sure Sydrach talk Teach tell thank Thee there’s things thought Tomocomo took turned Uncle Pem voice waited walk wall wasn’t What’s window woman words wouldn’t You’re