Soul Incompetency

John Leland

Go look him up.

He was one of the most popular and controversial Baptist of the early to mid 1800s.
Leland took the concept of self-government in politics to imply personal autonomy in religion.
“We will be free, we will rule ourselves,” he wrote. Leland took the concept of religious autonomy so far that he was even opposed to parents teaching their own children. He warned that, “it is very iniquitous [for a man] to bind the consciences of his children.” This was a radically individualistic conception of Biblical teaching: He urged people to make a deliberate effort to free themselves from all cultural authorities, whether church, state, teachers, or even family.

Leland’s rejection of religious authority led him to insist that the simple and the ignorant are actually more competent than the educated leadership to read and understand the Bible: “ Is not the simple man, who makes nature and reason his study, a competent judge of things?” This is an early expression of the Baptist concept of Soul Competency.

Just a thought. I hope it provokes further study.

Licet volare si in tergo aquilae volat
“A man can fly if he wishes, if he rides on the back of an eagle”