America's First Prophetic Voice

Thanks to Barbara McGraw, Barbara & Tom Boyd and Tom Burns for a conversation yesterday that prompted further reflection on an issue which has been churning in the back of mind since I began wrestling with the thought of Baptist re-envisioners (See my 7-9-04 Blog on Baptist Identity). The question is “What is conscience?”

A few years ago I wrote an essay with that title in which I defined conscience as the ability to put yourself in the place of others (in technical terms, sympathetic imagination) and look at yourself through the eyes of an Other (in technical terms, reflexive self-consciousness). I derived this definition from my exegesis for a sermon I gave on what some think is the central biblical text for an understanding of conscience -- 2 Corinthians 5:10-11.

Then I began to read the early Baptists to see if I could find evidence of these two components -- sympathetic imagination and reflexive self-consciousness -- in their discussions of conscience. I’ve not had much time to devote to this research, but I found it easy to find evidence of both components in the thought of Roger Williams (1603-83) – the great champion of “liberty of conscience” and religious liberty.

Williams studied the language and customs of the indigenous peoples of North America and published the first text on a Native American language -- a task requiring no small extension and exercise of the first component -- sympathetic imagination. The second component -- reflexive self-consciousness -- is apparent in a number of passages in William’s book, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution. Many are found within the context of his concern for the integrity of the Christian witness as it was shared cross-culturally. Here is one of the clearest expressions of a socially constructed conscience in William's thought:

Two mountains of crying guilt lie heavy upon the backs of all men that name the name of Christ, in the eyes of Jews, Turks, and pagans.

First, the blasphemies of their idolatrous inventions, superstitions, and most unchristian conversations.

Secondly, the bloody, irreligious, and inhuman oppressions and destructions under the mask or veil of the name of Christ, etc. (Bloudy Tenent, page 8)

In the little bit of research that I’ve done into the understandings of conscience put forward by contemporaries of Williams and thinkers who followed him, it has been hard to find evidence of both components. It is much easier to find them in more recent discussions by philosophers and social scientists talking about the social construction of conscience.

In the current political climate, if securing the first colonial charter in history granting full religious liberty to people of all faiths no longer suffices to earn Williams recognition as America’s first prophetic voice, perhaps he deserves the distinction for his understanding of conscience.