Roger Williams’ separation of state and religion as seen from Spain

On 16 May, the cultural centre Casa del Hidalgo in the Central Spanish town of Alcázar de San Juan hosted the presentation of a new book by José Moreno Berrocal, pastor of the Evangelical Christian Church in the municipality. Morenos is also chair of the Theology Group of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

In Roger Williams: Freedom of Conscience, Church-State Separation, and Democratic Power, Moreno traces the life and thought of a fundamental pastor and thinker of the 17th century, someone who had a great influence on the consolidation of modern democracy.

José Moreno has been publishing for several years with the aim of rescuing for the memory relevant figures who, perhaps, may have gone unnoticed by the general public in Spain.

In this case, Roger Williams was someone who developed concepts “such as freedom of conscience, or the separation of Church and State that we take for granted today”, Moreno told the public, freedoms for which “people like him fought”.

The author shared that Williams was “in the British colonies and worked to make Rhode Island a place of tolerance”. This “influence appears in the Constitution of the United States, especially in that first amendment that guarantees that each person can live according to his or her conscience”.

The lessons of the past are applicable to the present, underlined the author, “given that we face a social situation with a lot of tension (…) we have to live in this respect for one another in our positions, which is called civility”.

The presentation was attended by the mayoress of Alcázar de San Juan, Rosa Melchor, together with the town councillor Javier Ortega, both showing their support for the evangelical pastor in this new literary project.

Mayor Melchor highlighted the author’s emphasis on concepts and ideals without which European democracies as we know them today could not be understood.

The book (published in Spanish language) can be purchased through the Editorial Andamio website.