Book contents
- Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
- Reviews
- Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Legacy of Freedom of Speech
- 2 The Legacy of Freedom of Press
- 3 The Legacy of Freedoms for the Criminally Accused
- 4 The Legacy of Higher Education
- 5 The Legacy of Abolition of Slavery
- 6 The Legacy of the Modern Civil Rights Movement
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Select Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Legacy of Freedom of Speech
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2023
- Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
- Reviews
- Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Legacy of Freedom of Speech
- 2 The Legacy of Freedom of Press
- 3 The Legacy of Freedoms for the Criminally Accused
- 4 The Legacy of Higher Education
- 5 The Legacy of Abolition of Slavery
- 6 The Legacy of the Modern Civil Rights Movement
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Freedom of speech was conceptualized in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, and grew into common acceptance, primarily through Puritan belief in parrhesia in the Bible and through Puritans’ religion-based discourse asserting freedom of speech in books and sermons and speeches. This is, of course, contrary to the other authors, ancient and modern, who have discussed freedom of speech from a secular perspective based on parrhesia as it appeared in classical literature and other sources. However, those other authors generally underestimated the important role of freedom of speech in Puritan writing and thought and its influence on later English and American assertions of freedom of speech. The Puritan advocates of freedom of speech in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England were quite aware of the classical uses of parrhesia – most had received a classical education, a significant portion at Oxford or Cambridge – but they deliberately chose instead to rely on the biblical basis for parrhesia. Their frequent assertions of freedom of speech call into question the contention that "[f]ree speech as we understand the term ... remained nearly unknown to legal or constitutional history and to libertarian thought on either side of the Atlantic before 1776," as Leonard Levy claimed.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023