Paradoxes of Religious Toleration in Early Modern Political Thought

Much of what people in the contemporary developed world think about religious toleration has evolved from crucial innovations in toleration theory of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thinkers from that period have been rightly celebrated for influential and liberating concepts and ideas that have enabled many of us to live in peace. In this volume, the contributors focus on paradoxes, blind spots, unexpected flaws, or ambiguities in early modern toleration theories and practices. They explore the complexities, the complications, and the inconsistencies that came up in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as people grappled with the idea of toleration.In understanding the weaknesses, contradictions, and flaws in other theories, it will help us identify and sort out the defects in our own way of thinking. If we recognize and become sensitive to these flaws, we may understand better why no theory has ever garnered the support of everyone, and in the long run we may be able to construct better theories of toleration. Sensitivity to the weaknesses and unexpected paradoxes in classical theories may help us avoid or overcome similar problems.