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 |
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Page 36
... wall in such a way that the butcher could see quick - handed thieves with his back turned . I avoided my image . I pretended interest in the raw sides of beef hanging from their hooks . " Ye be running away from your lessons , lad ...
... wall in such a way that the butcher could see quick - handed thieves with his back turned . I avoided my image . I pretended interest in the raw sides of beef hanging from their hooks . " Ye be running away from your lessons , lad ...
Page 41
... wall of the city proper down to Ludgate with its choke point of barrows and litters and packhorses, then bursting forth into the square that held that great landmark, St. Paul's Cathedral, like a beached leviathan washed up on a tidal ...
... wall of the city proper down to Ludgate with its choke point of barrows and litters and packhorses, then bursting forth into the square that held that great landmark, St. Paul's Cathedral, like a beached leviathan washed up on a tidal ...
Page 42
... wall of the cathedral precinct . That led down Paul's Wharf Hill to the river where the swans were , above London Bridge . The bridge broke the eastern horizon like the unearthed remains of a giant's lower jaw , still bearing the caries ...
... wall of the cathedral precinct . That led down Paul's Wharf Hill to the river where the swans were , above London Bridge . The bridge broke the eastern horizon like the unearthed remains of a giant's lower jaw , still bearing the caries ...
Page 44
... wall of a nobleman's courtyard with such a smack I feared it had broken its spine . How would I explain that to Uncle Pem ? But its back was fine , its gilt letters still untarnished , its cover intact . And it was closed . In ...
... wall of a nobleman's courtyard with such a smack I feared it had broken its spine . How would I explain that to Uncle Pem ? But its back was fine , its gilt letters still untarnished , its cover intact . And it was closed . In ...
Page 46
... wall . In all my en - counters with the slimy world of city creatures I had never actually seen a reptile of any kind except in illustrations of the Garden of Eden on the parish house wall . This one seemed to let off rings of heat from ...
... wall . In all my en - counters with the slimy world of city creatures I had never actually seen a reptile of any kind except in illustrations of the Garden of Eden on the parish house wall . This one seemed to let off rings of heat from ...
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Common terms and phrases
answer arms Bartholomew Legate bells Bible breath Catherine chair church corner cried dance dear desk door Drake dream Elizabeth Hatton eyes face Father Spenser feet fingers floor gave God's hand Hatfield Broad Oak Hatton House head hear heard High Laver horse Jane knew Lady Barrington Lady Hatton Lady Masham laughed London looked Lord Lord Coke Mama Mary Mary Barnard matter Mayhap merchant taylor mind never night Papa Papa's Pietr prayer pulpit Rachel reached Roger Williams Sepulchre's sermon shouted side silence Sir Edward Sir Edward Coke Sir William smile Smithfield someone Star Chamber steps stood stopped street sure Sydrach talk Teach tell thank Thee things Thou thought Tomocomo took turned Uncle Pem voice waited walk wall window woman words دو