Eric Patterson
Eric Patterson (PhD, University of California) is president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and research fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Affairs.
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This item will be available on September 15, 2026

This item will be available on September 15, 2026
For many Christians today, the viability of religious freedom—a right once assumed in the American context—has become profoundly uncertain. In a nation where freedom is increasingly misunderstood and sometimes maligned, the church needs more than political talking points; it needs theological ground.
Faith and Freedom: Six Theological Reflections on Religious Liberty, edited by Eric Patterson and Jennifer Marshall Patterson, answers the call by reviving the rich Protestant heritage of biblical and doctrinal arguments for religious liberty. While most of the world lives under persecution, even the United States context has seen freedom transform from a given right to a hotly contested privilege.
This book brings together top evangelical scholars from across the confessional spectrum—including Wesleyan, Reformed, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, and African American church traditions. Written in accessible language, this is a vital resource for pastors, seminarians, students, and interested laity, providing the doctrinal clarity needed to meet today’s challenges to confessional freedoms.
About the Series
Foreword, by David S. Dockery
Introduction, by Eric Patterson and Jennifer Patterson
Chapter 1 Religious Freedom in the Reformed Tradition, by John S. Redd Jr.
Chapter 2 Religious Freedom in the Baptist Tradition, by Jonathan Leeman
Chapter 3 Religious Freedom in the Pentecostal Tradition, by Dale M. Coulter
Chapter 4 Religious Freedom in the Lutheran Tradition, by Joel Biermann and Richard J. Serina Jr.
Chapter 5 Religious Freedom in the Wesleyan-Methodist Tradition, by Brian Ebel
Chapter 6 The Black Church and Religious Freedom, by Vincent Bacote
Acknowledgments
General Index
For many Christians today, the viability of religious freedom—a right once assumed in the American context—has become profoundly uncertain. In a nation where freedom is increasingly misunderstood and sometimes maligned, the church needs more than political talking points; it needs theological ground.
Faith and Freedom: Six Theological Reflections on Religious Liberty, edited by Eric Patterson and Jennifer Marshall Patterson, answers the call by reviving the rich Protestant heritage of biblical and doctrinal arguments for religious liberty. While most of the world lives under persecution, even the United States context has seen freedom transform from a given right to a hotly contested privilege.
This book brings together top evangelical scholars from across the confessional spectrum—including Wesleyan, Reformed, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, and African American church traditions. Written in accessible language, this is a vital resource for pastors, seminarians, students, and interested laity, providing the doctrinal clarity needed to meet today’s challenges to confessional freedoms.
About the Series
Foreword, by David S. Dockery
Introduction, by Eric Patterson and Jennifer Patterson
Chapter 1 Religious Freedom in the Reformed Tradition, by John S. Redd Jr.
Chapter 2 Religious Freedom in the Baptist Tradition, by Jonathan Leeman
Chapter 3 Religious Freedom in the Pentecostal Tradition, by Dale M. Coulter
Chapter 4 Religious Freedom in the Lutheran Tradition, by Joel Biermann and Richard J. Serina Jr.
Chapter 5 Religious Freedom in the Wesleyan-Methodist Tradition, by Brian Ebel
Chapter 6 The Black Church and Religious Freedom, by Vincent Bacote
Acknowledgments
General Index