James Calvin Davis – författare

What can the life and thought of an eighteenth-century clergyman and college president tell us about the political crises that threaten American democracy today, including institutional racism? The Character of a Nation explores the political ethics of American Founding Father and theologian John Witherspoon (1723–1794) and his ideals and failures, asking how a chastened understanding of this important historical figure might inform struggles over American political character in our day.Reflecting the influence of two intellectual traditions, orthodox Calvinism and the Scottish Enlightenment, Witherspoon understood political virtue asa commitment to natural rights, benevolent other-regard, and the common good. Witherspoon thought good political character was essential to American independence and the health of the new republic, and he argued that religious, political, and educational institutions shared a vital responsibility to cultivate character in the nation’s citizens. For all his talk about human rights and benevolent virtue, however, Witherspoon was gravely inconsistent in his allegiance to his ideals, for he was complicit in the enslavement of Black Americans. As a result of this hypocrisy, Witherspoon personifies the mixed moral legacy of the nation he helped birth. Through examining the moral ideals and tragic hypocrisy he represents, The Character of a Nation explains what it means in the 21st century to be a nation founded on progressive ideals of liberty but also the sin of institutionalized racial violence that continues to haunt this country.

What can the life and thought of an eighteenth-century clergyman and college president tell us about the political crises that threaten American democracy today, including institutional racism? The Character of a Nation explores the political ethics of American Founding Father and theologian John Witherspoon (1723–1794) and his ideals and failures, asking how a chastened understanding of this important historical figure might inform struggles over American political character in our day.Reflecting the influence of two intellectual traditions, orthodox Calvinism and the Scottish Enlightenment, Witherspoon understood political virtue asa commitment to natural rights, benevolent other-regard, and the common good. Witherspoon thought good political character was essential to American independence and the health of the new republic, and he argued that religious, political, and educational institutions shared a vital responsibility to cultivate character in the nation’s citizens. For all his talk about human rights and benevolent virtue, however, Witherspoon was gravely inconsistent in his allegiance to his ideals, for he was complicit in the enslavement of Black Americans. As a result of this hypocrisy, Witherspoon personifies the mixed moral legacy of the nation he helped birth. Through examining the moral ideals and tragic hypocrisy he represents, The Character of a Nation explains what it means in the 21st century to be a nation founded on progressive ideals of liberty but also the sin of institutionalized racial violence that continues to haunt this country.

From "the big four" (abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and stem-cell research) to war, poverty, and the environment, this timely book considers religion's impact on moral debates in America's past and present. James Calvin Davis argues for religion's potential to enrich both the content and the civility of public conversation. This book will interest all concerned citizens yearning for more careful thinking about the role of religion in public debate.

Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his refusal to conform to Puritan religious and social standards, Roger Williams established a haven in Rhode Island for those persecuted in the name of the religious establishment. He conducted a lifelong debate over religious freedom with distinguished figures of the seventeenth century, including Puritan minister John Cotton, Massachusetts governor John Endicott, and the English Parliament.James Calvin Davis gathers together important selections from Williams’s public and private writings on religious liberty, illustrating how this renegade Puritan radically reinterpreted Christian moral theology and the events of his day in a powerful argument for freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state. For Williams, the enforcement of religious uniformity violated the basic values of Calvinist Christianity and presumed upon God’s authority to speak to the individual conscience. He argued that state coercion was rarely effective, often causing more harm to the church and strife to the social order than did religious pluralism.This is the first collection of Williams’s writings in forty years reaching beyond his major work, The Bloody Tenent, to include other selections from his public and private writings. This carefully annotated book introduces Williams to a new generation of readers.