Book Review: Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism
In the history of religious liberty in America, Backus deserves to rank with Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson.
William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968).
Introduction
William Gerald McLoughlin was the preeminent historian on Isaac Backus during the latter part of the twentieth century. He began this volume, which includes twelve pamphlets published by Backus and various letters and petitions he also wrote, by noting the importance of this one man to the history of America and the religious developments therein.
McLoughlin wrote,
“Isaac Backus’ great contribution to American social and intellectual history was his vigorous exposition in theory and practice of the evangelical principles of religion and society which gradually replaced Puritanism in the latter half of the eighteenth century. In particular, he was the most forceful and effective writer America produced on behalf of the pietistic or evangelical theory of separation of church and state. In this respect, Backus deserves to rank with Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson.”[1]
In other words, those who are interested to learn about the development of religious liberty in America, and especially about the contributions of evangelical Baptists, are obligated to read deeply from Isaac Backus. This wonderful compilation of Backus’s pamphlets will aide the reader in fulfilling a task.
McLoughlin noted three areas where Backus made unique contributions to the development of religious liberty in America. First, Backus embodied and articulated “the rationale of the unique American principle of separation of church and state,” one that differed from both Roger Williams and John Leland (two other major Baptist contributors).[2] Second, Backus supplied a “rationale [for] the Baptist movement,” making public arguments that both represented and shaped Baptist theology and practice.[3] Third, Backus argued for a “theological and ecclesiastical rationale which… reconciled [John] Calvin’s beliefs in human depravity and predestination with the Enlightenment’s faith in free will and self-determination.”[4]
A summary of Backus’s most notable contribution to the public discourse will demonstrate the sort of arguments and theological framework he brought to bear on this pivotal moment in the history of the new world particularly and the western world more broadly.
An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty (1773)
McLoughlin wrote, “An Appeal to the Public may… be described as the Declaration of Independence for the Separate-Baptists against the tyranny of the Standing Order.”[5] This was not the first Baptist articulation of an argument for religious liberty, but it was the magnum opus of Separate-Baptists in New England under the legislative authority of the state church. These Separate-Baptists were forced to pay taxes in support of Congregationalist ministers and churches, whether they participated in or approved of such churches or not. And when any dissenters refused to pay these taxes, the power of the civil government came down upon them in full, confiscating property and imprisoning delinquent persons.
True Liberty
In Backus’s appeal, he began by arguing that “true liberty of man is to know, obey, and enjoy his Creator and to do all the good unto, and enjoy all the happiness with and in, his fellow creatures that he is capable of doing.”[6] Then he proceeded to outline some “essential points of difference between civil and ecclesiastical government.”[7]
First, government is an “ordinance of men,” whereas church affairs are “not to be subject to ordinances after the doctrines and commandments of men.”[8]
Second, “officers” of the civil government “have truly no more authority than the people give them,” and this the officer is to wield so that citizens will work no ill to their neighbor.[9] However, ecclesiastical officers are to bear their authority in calling people to behave rightly toward both God and neighbor.
Third, the “acts of executive power in the civil state are to be performed in the name of the king or state they belong to, while all our religious acts are to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus.”[10]
Fourth, in “civil governments some are appointed to judge for others and have power to compel others to submit to their judgment, but our Lord has most plainly forbidden us either to assume or submit to any such a thing in religion.”[11]
Blending of Church and State
After his outline of the differences between civil and ecclesiastical institutions, Backus then turned to summarizing an overview of the ways in which “civil and ecclesiastical affairs are blended together among us to the depriving of many of God’s people of that liberty of conscience which he has given them.”[12]
First, “our legislature claim a power to compel every town and parish within their jurisdiction to set up and maintain a pedobaptist worship among them although it is well known, that infant baptism is never expressed in the Bible.”[13]
Second, the “Massachusetts legislature… have also determined that [church officers] must be one who has either an academical degree, or a testimonial in his favor from a majority of the ministers in the county where the parish lies.”[14]
Third, “the ministers of our land have chosen to live by the law,” or raise their material support by force of the state law.[15]
Baptist Oppression
In the third section of Backus’s appeal, he recounted several instances of “what Baptists have suffered under this constitution,” or joining of civil and ecclesiastical institutions.[16] He was thoughtful in his placing of blame only where it belonged. Backus said, “we are far from charging all the evils we complain of upon the whole Congregational denomination without distinction, for we believe there are many among them in various stations, who are sorely grieved at these oppressions.”[17] Nevertheless, Backus was clear to lay blame that there were egregious oppressions put upon the dissenters by at least some Congregationalists with the civil authority to do it.
The Right of Religious Liberty
Backus was also clear to argue that religious liberty is a right deserved by all citizens for at least five reasons. He said that dissenters like him would “stop about paying so much regard to such laws as to give annual certificates to other denominations [i.e., the Congregational or Standing Churches] as we have formerly done.”[18]
First, “because the very nature of such a practice implies an acknowledgement that the civil power has a right to set one religious sect up above another.”[19] This is not so, said Backus.
Second, “it is evident that they claim a right to tax us from civil obligation as being representatives of the people,” but a civil community does not have such ecclesiastical power.[20]
Third, the constitution of Massachusetts at that time “not only emboldens people to judge the liberty of other men’s consciences… [it is also] conceived… to be a duty [civil officers] owed to God and their country not to be dispensed with.”[21]
Fourth, such a “scheme we oppose evidently tends to destroy the purity and life of religion, for… the church is espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ and is obligated to be subject to him in everything as a true wife to her husband.”[22]
Fifth, Backus argued that the present civil and ecclesiastical union lays for men a “temptation… when temporal advantages are annexed to one persuasion [of religion] and disadvantages laid upon another.”[23]
Backus’s Appeal
In conclusion, Backus appealed to his countrymen, those “who inhabit the land to which our ancestors fled for religious liberty.”[24] He said that they themselves are “accused with being disorderly and rebellious by men in power who profess a great regard for order and the public good.”[25] This was England’s charge against American colonists who were resisting the authority of the British crown. Backus said, “You tell us you cannot [rest under their administration] because you are taxed where you are not represented.”[26] And then he turned the tables, saying, “is it not really so with us? …and have we not as good right to say you do the same thing?”[27] The differences, said Backus, between the taxation without representation of the colonists and that of the religious dissenters among them was that of “space” and “the nature of things.”[28] The colonists were rebelling against what they perceived to be the unjust ordinances of men which were commanded from so far away, but the religious dissenters were desirous of the freedom to obey here and now what they believed to be the ordinances of God.
Conclusion
This compilation of pamphlets from Isaac Backus provides readers with a critical piece of American and religious history. America as a nation cannot be rightly understood apart from the concept of religious liberty. And while there was and continues to be no small disagreement about what exactly this means, religious liberty in one form or another is a prized possession of American citizens. Whether American citizens know it or not, Baptists played a major role in arguing for and shaping the concept of religious liberty as we experience it in America today. And Isaac Backus was one of the most active and thoughtful Baptists to advocate for it.
These pamphlets themselves are accessible to most any reader, and William McLoughlin’s commentary throughout provides quality context for couching them within their historical moment. Students of history and those interested in the development of Baptist political theology will benefit much from reading this volume. Indeed, Isaac Backus deserves to be read along with other great figures like Thomas Jefferson and Roger Williams. I contend that Backus is more deserving than these others, since his political theology was more representative of Baptists than was Williams, and Backus’s political theology shaped the concept of religious liberty that became palatable to the American public under the leadership of Jefferson.
[1] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 1.
[2] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 1.
[3] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 1.
[4] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 1.
[5] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 305.
[6] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 309.
[7] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 313.
[8] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 313.
[9] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 313.
[10] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 314.
[11] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 314.
[12] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 316.
[13] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 317.
[14] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 317.
[15] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 318.
[16] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 325.
[17] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 332.
[18] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 333.
[19] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 333.
[20] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 333.
[21] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 333.
[22] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 333.
[23] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 335.
[24] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 339.
[25] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 339.
[26] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 339.
[27] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 339.
[28] William McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789 (Cambridge, MA: The John Harvard Library. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968). 339.