History of Religious Toleration

This article analyses an overlooked 1675 sermon before King Charles II by John Tillotson against the Earl of Rochester's Satyr against Reason and Mankind. It suggests that this sermon sheds light on the extent to which there was a concerted campaign by the court clergy against Rochester.

This volume brings together 138 of Leibniz’s writings on four key areas of philosophy: metaphysics, natural philosophy, ethics, and jurisprudence. His metaphysical writings trace the development of some of his most distinctive doctrines, such as the complete concept theory of substance, pre-established harmony, the nature of human and divine freedom, and the infinite analysis of contingent truths. His writings on natural philosophy reveal his conviction that the principles of physics ultimately depend on those of metaphysics and his efforts to develop a rational physics grounded not in experiments but in an a priori investigation of intelligible and sensible qualities, such as figure, motion, and colour. The ethical writings focus on happiness, the role of virtue, and the importance of adopting others’ perspectives. Meanwhile, his jurisprudential works centre on his ambition to create a systematic, rational foundation for law and his plan to reform legal codes by integrating Roman law with modern European jurisprudence.
This collection traces the evolution and interconnection of these ideas and projects during Leibniz’s formative first decade in Hanover (1677–1686), and is the most extensive collection of such writings in English to date. Strickland has returned to Leibniz’s original manuscripts to produce accurate, carefully annotated translations that document textual variations, deletions, and marginalia. Of the 138 texts included, 88 appear in English for the first time, and one has never been published in any language.
In addition to the translations, the volume features a substantial introductory essay on Leibniz’s life, work, and writings on metaphysics, natural philosophy, ethics, and jurisprudence from 1677 to 1686, along with detailed explanatory notes on each text, providing context, background, and the rationale for their dating.

This book examines the early exchange between northern Europeans and the populations in the peripheral regions of Spanish America, focusing on Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Tierra Firme (which Schreuder defines as the Atlantic coast between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers). In both regions, tobacco was a key export, but the Spanish Crown forbade trade with foreigners. Despite this, contraband was crucial for supplying European goods and enslaved African people to these areas, which suffered from infrequent and irregular supplies from the metropolis due to the Crown's limited shipping policy. Schreuder claims that this contraband trade between the Dutch, English, and French on one side and the Amerindians, maroons of African origin, Spanish colonizers, and mestizos on the other was largely brokered by Portuguese New Christians living in Spanish America and those who adopted Judaism in the Netherlands. Her research is based on sources collected by the late scholar Engel Sluiter , primarily from Spanish archives, which he organized and translated into English. The book is divided into four chapters and a long conclusion. The first chapter presents the historical background of Amsterdam Sephardic merchants and argues that notarial records, the sources most commonly used by historians to study their commercial activities, do not document illegal trade, leaving a gap in the history of their tobacco contraband with Spanish America. The second chapter offers an overview of the contraband exchange and introduces Engel Sluiter's document collection. The next two chapters form the core of the book, focusing on Tierra Firme and Hispaniola, respectively. The two chapters highlight how, in many cases, contraband developed from earlier privateering activities, as trade was more beneficial and less risky for both parties. The Dutch also organized expeditions to extract salt from the natural pans in Punta Araya (today's Venezuela), establishing contact with the local population of the neighboring areas. Additionally, the Dutch and English imported cowhides from Hispaniola, which may have remained more important than tobacco. Tobacco grew

The volume explores the role of religious discourse in the construction of the concept of peace from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, analyzing the narratives which in Europe gave extrahuman value to peace, with a focus on the processes of idealization of peace and the relationship with the concept of toleration

This study takes into view what medieval German poets from Wolfram von Eschenbach to the anonymous composer (perhaps: Stephan Fridolin) of Fortunatus, that is, from the early thirteenth to the early sixteenth century, had to say about personal contacts with and exchanges between their Christian protagonists and Muslim counterparts (Arabs and/or Persians). Although the public discourse dominated by the Church (Crusades) painted starkly hostile images of the Muslim world, for secular authors there were fairly few reasons, if any at all, to assume or to advocate strong differences between both sides, or to project the Muslim contemporaries as hostile and/or dangerous. This study will show that particularly medieval German authors suggested throughout time that the relationship between Christian knights and others and Arab/Muslim lords could be constructive or even based on friendship.

This is the annotated auction catalogue of Johannes Koerbagh. An index of authors and titles of anonymous works is added. The numbers in the index refer to the consecutive numbering of the catalogue. The transcription of the catalogue preserves compositorial errors, which are corrected in the descriptions. I am grateful to Frank van Lamoen and Frank Mertens for their help in resolving some of the more abstruse titles; my thanks to Frank Mertens especially for meticulously double-checking the catalogue and offering some substantial corrections.

Persecution and Toleration offers a novel and superb analysis of the birth of religious freedom. Rather than seek an ideational account of the rise of religious freedom, Johnson and Koyama investigate changes in the institutional environment that governed the relationship between religion and the state. These changes made it in the interest of policy makers in modern Europe to grant greater religious freedom by transitioning from identity rules to impersonal laws in maintaining order. The book introduces a new thought-provoking conceptual framework that can be extended to examine the complicated history of the state's interaction with religion, comparative analysis of the relationship between state capacity and political legitimacy, and various other issues concerning the treatment of minorities and heterodox practices around the world. Keywords Persecution and Toleration ⋅ religious freedom ⋅ state capacity ⋅ political legitimacy ⋅ legal order ⋅ identity rules ⋅ general laws ⋅ heterodox practices ⋅ minorities JEL Classification H10 ⋅ K4 ⋅ N4 ⋅ O57 ⋅ P48 ⋅ Z12

Vll viii Taneguy Le Fe:vre, were Boubereau's teachers. A prize book given to Boubereau when he was in the Academie has been signed by Amyraut and Le Fevre. Boubereau's library represents a typical scholar's library of the seventeenth century. Religious controversy, history, politics, science, medicine and many of the classical authors are well represented. There are also a considerable number of books relating to the French protestants and the Edict of Nantes. Jean-Paul Pittion, when commenting on Boubereau's Muriel McCarthy xi orientalist William Guise, presented him with books when he was Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin in 1690. " Until recently the only information we had on the use and importance of Marsh's collection came from two sources. The first was in Professor George Stokes's Some Worthies of the Irish Church (London, 1900). Stokes included' An account of Archbishop Marsh and his library', and a brief description of some of the liturgical and oriental books. The second reference was given by Louis Hyman in his book The Jews in Ireland (London/Jerusalem, 1972). Hyman said that 'in the presence of Rev. Dr Thomas Sheridan ... the Rev. John Alexander and other Hebrew scholars (they) held a disputation in the public library of St. Sepulchre's in May 1733'. (Marsh's Library was originally called the Library of St. Sepulchre.) In 1994 Professor Popkin told us that when an Israeli scholar studied a microfilm of our oriental collection he said that it was the biggest list of Latin Judaica he had ever seen or heard of. Because of this new information it may be useful to give some details of the oriental books in our collections.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role played by the Portuguese Holy Office in the process of social discrimination against New Christians, that is, those who were considered to be descendant of Jews converted to Christianity in the late fifteenth century. This article focuses specifically on the different and changing attitudes of the Inquisitors General to the issue of purity of blood during the seventeenth century. In the course of that century, some people considered to be New Christians (with fama or nota) managed to join the Portuguese Holy Office. Nevertheless, this was not due to the fact that Inquisitors General and members of the General Council rejected discrimination using theoretical, religious and moral arguments, but to the impossibility of achieving undoubtful knowledge about the origins of those seeking to join the Inquisition. At the same time,
once racial discrimination became institutionalised within the Inquisition during the final third of the sixteenth century, the Inquisitors General became less concerned about the allegations of impure blood made about some of its ministers, so long as it could be demonstrated that they were good Christians and of use to the institution, or else capable of contributing to the specific personal interests of the tribunal’s rector. Nevertheless, not all supposed or real conversos succeeded in joining the Holy Office, as evidenced by cases of self-exclusion and the numerous proofs of “purity of blood” that were not approved. To address these questions, we turn to the proofs of “purity of blood” carried out by the Portuguese Inquisition, as well as to correspondence and documents from other institutions of the Portuguese and Spanish monarchies.

is frequently credited with being the first great modern Jewish thinker. It is argued that Mendelssohn gained this title by virtue of his commitment to establishing Judaisms commensurability with the Enlightenment project as it was conceived by eighteenth century German thinkers such as Leibniz and Wolff. It is the central claim of this essay that, so read, Mendelssohns work has been underappreciated for its contribution to the changing face of Jewish-Christian relations. If, I argue, Mendelssohns body of work lays the groundwork for a pluralist society, such a pluralist society presupposes an active role for both Judaism and Christianity as agents of cultural education. Mendelssohn undoubtedly issues a bold critique of Christianity throughout his work. However, a careful analysis of his overall attitude regarding religions role in the public square points to a constructive proposal emergent from Mendelssohns writings for a Jewish-Christian partnership in the labor of education and cultural critique. Of course, this is not the same as suggesting that Mendelssohns model for Jewish-Christian partnership is one that Christians would accept as authentic to their selfunderstanding. 1 To render Mendelssohns model credible, a case needs to be made that Mendelssohns construct of Christianity is recognizable to Christians. In the second half of the essay, I will attempt to demonstrate a family resemblance between Mendelssohns account of Christianity as emancipatory culture and the account of Christianity as the praxis of self-cultivation through the exercise of "reading" found in the work of St. Augustine. At stake is not only the possibility of a working partnership between Jews and Christians in a pluralist environment, but

French historian Emile G. Leonard, in his famous Histoire generale du protestantisme, pictures Calvin as the "founder of a civilization" Indeed, according to Leonard, Calvin was not so much the author of a new theology as the creator of a new type of person, that is, the re formed man of modem times (1988, 258). Epithets given to Calvinists confirm this understanding; they have been pictured as "secular monks" or "wordly saints" (Ryken) and their doctrine described as the finest example of "innerwordly asceticism" (Weber; Bainton 1956, 52). For Robert Kingdon, the real explanation of this moral austerity "lies in the fact that early Calvinist communities enforced morality...by the creation of the Calvinist consistory...established in Geneva by Calvin himself (1972, 4). It is therefore not surprising that Calvin is seen as the fountainhead of the moral austerity and rigidity that was for long a distinctive of Protestant countries.1 Geneva's linking with Calvin is one of the great symbiotics of his tory. It is now among the loci communes of Reformation textbooks to speak of Geneva as "Calvin's city." Yet, however suitable and handy, this expression is nevertheless inaccurate because it has the effect of surmising that Calvin held the position of a religious potentate in the small Swiss republic. It has in fact often been suggested that Calvin's political thought was profoundly theocratic. It is important, however, * This article is based on a paper presented in the graduate seminar "Secular Dimensions of the Reformation" given by Professor Edward Furcha during the winter term of 1997. The author would like to offer this paper in memoriam to Professor Furcha.

In 1391 Spanish Jews were forcibly converted to Catholic Christianity, and Portuguese Jews suffered the same fate in 1497. Jewish law rendered involuntary converts as anusim and voluntary converts as meshumadim. Christians without Jewish ancestry called them by various names, New Christians, alboraique, xuetas, and marranos, to name a few. In the fifteenth century, Catholic clerical authorities debated whether the New Christians were indeed Christians, albeit coerced. Canonic law rendered the sacrament of baptism as irrevocable. As such, any belief or practice not in accordance with Catholic doctrine was tantamount to heresy. Consequently, the Inquisition sought to rid the Church of the “Judaizing heresy.” On the one hand, the Sinaitic covenant (berith) considered anusim as Jews, even though there were Christians. This paper analyzes Jewish law and canonic law on respective religious identities. It includes an examination of rabbinic texts and rabbinic responsa, and an examination o...

In the midst of a global pandemic, the Frankfurt POLY (Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities) Lectures on "Pathways through Early Modern Christianities" brought together a virtual, global community of scholars and students in the Spring and Summer of 2021 to discuss the fascinating nature of early modern religious life. In this book, twelve pathbreaking scholars from the “four corners” of the early modern world reflect on the analytical tools that structure their field and that they have developed, revised and embraced in their scholarship: from generations to tolerance, from uniformity to publicity, from accommodation to local religion, from polycentrism to connected histories, and from identity to object agency. Together, the chapters of this reference work help both students and advanced researchers alike to appreciate the extent of our current knowledge about early modern christianities in their interconnected global context—and what exciting new travels could lie ahead.

Kilian Schindler examines how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe represented religious dissimulation on stage and argues that debates about the legitimacy of dissembling one's faith were closely bound up with early modern conceptions of theatricality. Considering both Catholic and Protestant perspectives on religious dissimulation in the absence of full toleration, Schindler demonstrates its ubiquity and urgency in early modern culture. By reconstructing the ideological undercurrents that inform both religious dissimulation and theatricality as a form of dissimulation, this book makes a case for the centrality of dissimulation in the religious politics of early modern drama. Lucid and original, this study is an important contribution to the understanding of early modern religious and literary culture.

This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/religious-dissimulation-and-early-modern-drama/5AA9C92EF6A91149658D152C185C607E

What is the future of humankind? Are we standing on the verge of destruction, or can we cherish bright prospects? The year 2020 gave us an opportunity to reflect on the outlook for humanity, as that was the year of a significant anniversary. When Jan Amos Comenius died 350 years ago, he left unfinished his greatest work, entitled General Consultation on the Restoration of Human Affairs (De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica). The goal of this paper is to observe Comenius's notion of human being in the Consultation, namely the notion of human "lostness" and "restoration." We will observe, with Comenius, that humanity is contradictory, or ambivalent. His whole remedial effort is based on an anthropological assumption, which may at first seem trivial, but in fact is profound and important: humanity is not alright, but it is not completely lost. We will explore the implications of this anthropology for the idea of emendation. I. "Human Affairs" We have truly great potential, we know a lot, we can do a lot; but it is precisely this capacity that is our greatest threat. We are also able to misuse everything we have. Whether we are talking about our reason, will, emotions, relationships, creativity, or humor, we can use absolutely all of it well, or badly. We are the only beings that have the potential for self-destruction. The call for discussions about how to realize our human potential is therefore supremely relevant and desirable (cf. Hábl 2015). Comenius considers "human affairs" in virtually all his works, but he clearly treats them most thoroughly and systematically in his greatest work, General Consultation concerning Restoration of Human Affairs. In it, he identifies the causes of human failings while also developing a very detailed plan for renewal. His whole remedial effort is based on an anthropological assumption that may at first seem trivial but in fact is profound and important: humanity is not alright, but it is not completely lost. 1 There is a solution, there is hope. But it isn't cheap. The depth of Comenius's position is revealed by a comparison of possible anthropological alternatives. On one end of the spectrum is the concept that human affairs are completely lost: human beings are evil, animalistic, brutal, completely corrupt, and therefore cannot be helped; the result of such a position is hopeless resignation. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we hear the romanticists

The author discusses the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation as a human rights movement. The Reformation not only laid the groundwork for religious human rights but also created the platform for the more expansive conceptions of individual liberty that shaped the political development of the West. The continuing importance of the churches in the human rights movement is affirmed. key words: civil liberties, human rights, Protestant Reformation, religious pluralism I START WITH THE CONVICTION THAT RELIGION AND HUMAN RIGHTS need each other. On the one hand, human rights norms need religious narratives to ground them. To be sure, there is some value in simply declaring human rights norms of liberty, equality, and fraternity-if for no other reason than to pose an ideal against which a community might measure itself, to preserve a normative totem for later generations to make real. But ultimately these abstract human rights ideals of the good life and the good society depend upon the visions and values of human communities to give them content and coherence. It is here that religion must play a vital role. Religion is an ineradicable condition of human lives and human communities. Religions invariably provide many of the sources and scales of values by which persons and peoples govern themselves. Religions inevitably define the meanings and measures of shame and regret, restraint and respect, responsibility and restitution that a human rights regime presupposes. Religions must thus be seen as indispensable allies in the modern struggle for human rights. To exclude them from the struggle is impossible, and, indeed, catastrophic. To include them-Portions of this text have also appeared in the essay "Law, Religion, and Human Rights,"

The Abnormal Normality. Hélène Berr’s Diary
From April 1942 to February 1944, Hélène Berr – a young Jewish reading
English Studies – kept a diary in which she noted the events of her increasingly precarious daily existence in occupied Paris. This unique document, unpublished for more than 60 years but known by a few, happens to be one of the most remarkable writings dealing with this troubled and shameful period in French History.
This article will attempt to study the split experienced by this writer, that is to live between a superficial normality and the pre-Auschwitz context, which is relentlessly taking shape. This diary must be read as a memorial document on the Shoah, but also as a profound reflection on the idea of Good and Evil living together and thus creating an intolerable sense of fake normality.

Célèbres par leur lutte contre l'intolérance, les philosophes du XVIIIe siècle n'ont cependant pas été les apôtres d'une tolérance inconditionnelle, conçue comme excellente en soi. Toute la difficulté tient, en effet, à l'existence de l'intolérable, laquelle rend indispensable l'analyse de ce qu'on doit ou ne doit pas tolérer. Voltaire fait de la tolérance un devoir minimal, destiné à être remplacé par la fraternité, cependant que Rousseau, dans sa fine analyse des mystifications engendrées par la prétendue tolérance, risque lui-même de passer pour intolérant. Dans le domaine de la religion, l'idéal de tolérance tend finalement à être dépassé vers la fin du siècle.

There is a direct relationship between epistemology and one’s attitude toward those with whom one disagrees. Those who think that the truth is diffucult to ascertain can be expected, other things equal, to tend to tolerate (in the sense of sympathizing with) those with whom they disagree, as the blameless victims of an opaque reality. Those who think that the truth is easy to ascertain can be expected, other things equal, to tend to be intolerant (in the sense of being unsympathetic) toward those with whom they disagree, who perversely refuse to acknowledge what should be clear to any well-intentioned inquirer. However, these tendencies toward tolerant or intolerant attitudes can be offset by other factors; and they do not, in any case, necessarily dictate whether one will favor tolerant or intolerant policies regarding those toward whom one feels tolerant or intolerant. The complex relationship between epistemology, tolerant or intolerant attitudes, and tolerant or intolerant policies is evident in the thought of prominent early-modern Protestant theologians who, under the pressure of rampant and violent religious disagreement, theorized tolerance.

Martin Bucer of Strasburg once a pillar of the Reformed churches, is sadly forgotten today, yet he stands firmly as one of Europe's greatest Reformers rather than in the shadow of such as Bullinger, Luther and Calvin. His enormous influence on the Continental and British Reformations was clearly second to none. The Roman Catholic Church viewed Bucer as the spokesman for all Protestants. Through his correspondence with English Christians, his professorship at Cambridge, his publications and his work on the Book of Common Prayer, he helped lead the Sceptred Isle from popery to liberty in the gospel. His status as a leading Reformer is demonstrated by the treatment given him by the papists after his death. In 1553, Bloody Mary gave a band of Italian thugs, led by Cardinal Pole, the order to hold a heresy trial over Bucer's grave and pronounce him guilty. After this sordid farce, Pole and his mob dug up the saint's remains, tied them to a stake rammed into the middle of a pile of Bucer's books and set fire to the lot. Such was deluded Mary's Counter-Reformation folly.

RESUMO O artigo é uma introdução ao Tratado Teológico-Político de Espinosa, a partir de três aspectos centrais: 1) os contextos religioso, político, filosófico e científico da Holanda seiscentista; 2) a estrutura da obra centrada na defesa da liberdade filosófica contra ingerências de natureza política (advindas do Estado) e teológica (advindas da Igreja); e 3) alguns conceitos e o modo de argumentação específicos da obra.

Introduction: "Consider the state of public affairs" We need "men of virtue" in public affairs (cf. Komenský 1992, 226). We need them in all areas of our lives, no doubt, but I want to focus on politics in this paper. Ever since the time of Plato, Aristotle and Augustine, the demand for morally fit people in politics has been foundational in every polis. Unfortunately, there has always been a shortage of such people. The question is, why? Where does this inconsistency come from? Why does the phrase "moral politician" so often sound as a humorous oxymoron? Is it even possible to practice moral politics? Jan Amos Comenius 2 believed it is. But his theory presupposed a specific notion of humanity. The aim of this paper is to outline Comenius' (Komensky's) anthropology 3 and to highlight its possible implications for politics that would stand up to the attribute "moral." "Consider the state of public affairs": Comenius thus begins his famous analysis of the political situation of his time, which from the first glance amazes the reader with its relevancy to today (compare Panegersia, V: 28) 4. For Comenius, it is obvious that the task of every "ruler, emperor, king, prince or superior" 5 is primarily an effort to bring about the "blissful state of private and public affairs" and the "happiness of the nation," as well as a "moral world." To do this, he must have a "richness of virtue, steadfastness, honesty and wisdom" (Mundus moralis, V: 9). However it is obvious that only one who first governs (controls) himself, and does that "even if nobody is watching," can govern another (compare Mundus moralis, III: 2, iv). And of course it's here that the problem begins.

Jan Patočka ingresó a la comeniología, en 1941, con un artículo programático titulado Una nueva mirada a Comenio[1]. El título de este artículo es la expresión prístina de lo que Patočka trató en los siguientes treinta años, a lo largo de su carrera científica. Patočka reconoce en su texto a los representantes más destacados de la comeniología del momento; sin embargo, cree que “otro, un nuevo Comenio, se necesita hoy”, que no sería sólo una decocción de comida literaria masticada

Jan Patočka ingresó a la comeniología, en 1941, con un artículo programático titulado Una nueva mirada a Comenio[1]. El título de este artículo es la expresión prístina de lo que Patočka trató en los siguientes treinta años, a lo largo de su carrera científica. Patočka reconoce en su texto a los representantes más destacados de la comeniología del momento; sin embargo, cree que “otro, un nuevo Comenio, se necesita hoy”, que no sería sólo una decocción de comida literaria masticada

À partir de l'analyse de la diversité des réactions réformées à l'édit de Fontainebleau, cet article se propose de suivre l'avènement de deux des concepts fondateurs de la modernité politique, la distinction des sphères religieuse et politique d'une part, la souveraineté populaire d'autre part. Toutefois, l'analyse généalogique soulignera l'émergence distincte de ces deux notions, en fonction de logiques croisées et apparemment paradoxales dont il faudra chercher la cohérence dans les positions anthropologiques qui les sous-tendent. L'étude des débats théologiques modernes dessine de la sorte l'une des voies par laquelle les concepts politiques modernes ont été formés.

When Professor Norman Sykes wrote 'where the dog in question is an eighteenth century bishop [.. .] any stick is good enough to beat an eighteenth century dog of a bishop [...]',* he could well have been writing of the way in which traditional historians have dealt with the life of Edward Willes, Bishop of St Davids (1742-1743) and of Bath and Wells (1743-1773). In 1829 Stephen Cassan wrote of Willes: 'his elevation was attributable to his holding a situation somewhat incongruous with the duties of a priest. He was Decypherer to the King'. He continued, 'Bishop Willes preferment will be thought somewhat strange, though perhaps not [...I: the race is not only not always, but very rarely to the swift and the battle to the ~t r o n g. '~ However, Cassan was more a mordant dogmatist than an open-minded historian; Sykes called him 'a zealous asserter of epis~opacy'~. Nevertheless he set the tone for successive ecclesiastical historians of the nineteenth century. William Hunt wrote: 'During the eighteenth century the general character [.. .] of the diocese presents few satisfactory features [.. .] Willes held office at court.' Eveline Woodcock talked of 'Spiritual indifference in high places', and Percy Dearmer denounced Willes as 'a typical eighteenth century prelate [...I rich and mostly nonr e~i d e n t. '~

In 1391 Spanish Jews were forcibly converted to Catholic Christianity, and Portuguese Jews suffered the same fate in 1497. Jewish law rendered involuntary converts as anusim and voluntary converts as meshumadim. Christians without Jewish ancestry called them by various names, New Christians, alboraique, xuetas, and marranos, to name a few. In the fifteenth century, Catholic clerical authorities debated whether the New Christians were indeed Christians, albeit coerced. Canonic law rendered the sacrament of baptism as irrevocable. As such, any belief or practice not in accordance with Catholic doctrine was tantamount to heresy. Consequently, the Inquisition sought to rid the Church of the “Judaizing heresy.” On the one hand, the Sinaitic covenant (berith) considered anusim as Jews, even though there were Christians. This paper analyzes Jewish law and canonic law on respective religious identities. It includes an examination of rabbinic texts and rabbinic responsa, and an examination o...

Pour bien concevoir (et mettre en œuvre) la tolérance, il est nécessaire de l'appuyer sur une théorie politique et sur une épistémologie cohérentes. Spinoza, Locke et Bayle offrent en un autre siècle des liens dont il ne serait pas inutile de s'inspirer, notamment le respect de la séparation des champs, des points de vue, des méthodologies. Ce n'est pas parce que le concret est un que son étude peut être une.

Nous vivons aujourd’hui sous l’héritage de Voltaire, qui estimait que nos limites et nos faiblesses nous obligent non seulement à tolérer les opinions religieuses des autres, mais plus encore, à relativiser nos croyances : « Vous êtes mahométan, donc il y a des gens qui ne le sont pas, donc vous pourriez bien avoir tort » (art. Secte du "Dictionnaire philosophique"). Mais au 18e siècle, les hommes d’Église catholiques ne l’entendaient pas de cette oreille. La lecture des ouvrages des abbés Novi de Caveirac, Malvaux, Nonnotte et Yvon fait apparaître que la faiblesse de l’homme et l’insuffisance de sa raison ne plaident pas pour la tolérance de l’erreur mais au contraire pour la soumission inconditionnelle à la Vérité que Dieu nous a révélée et qui est disponible pour tous ceux qui consentent à se tourner vers elle. La tolérance religieuse est tout sauf une attitude naturelle ; si l’on considère que la vérité est essentiellement une, elle est par conséquent essentiellement intolérante.