The A-Z of Believing: T is for Tolerance

Ed Kessler, head of the Woolf Institute, presents the 20th part in a series on belief and scepticism

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T is for... Tolerance

The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman World were considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers equally false and by the magistrate as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence but even religious concord. – Edward Gibbon

You and I may view toleration and the granting of civil equality to all, irrespective of their religious convictions, as the bedrock of a free society. But we should remember they have come slowly, haltingly, and disturbingly recently to our world. Yet, in 27 BCE, Marcus Agrippa designed the Roman Pantheon as a home for all gods. But when it was dedicated in 609 CE as the Church of the Santa Maria Rotonda, the gods were driven out, replaced by the One God. It seems that pagan tolerance was swept away by monotheistic intolerance of “other gods”.

Worse than that, Christians were no longer prepared to tolerate other monotheists – Jews, Muslims or even dissidents within their own ranks. As Christians gained the upper hand in the west, Jews, but also Muslims, became a barely tolerated minority under Christian rule, and Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations deteriorated to a low ebb. In many parts of the world today, especially in Muslim-majority countries, tolerance of religious minorities seems to have reached another low, as the podcast on ‘H for Heresy’ showed. Although there are contextual differences, the sanction for religious offences in Iran, Sudan or Afghanistan share one fundamental objective: punishing people in the name of God.

But let’s go back in time in order to reflect on how religious thinkers came around to tolerance. In medieval Christian Europe, whilst the possession of full rights was usually restricted to members of an Established Church, Jews and Muslims were allowed some autonomy. During the Convivencia, a term which describes the relatively easy coexistence (literally, “living together”) of Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, a large Christian population, and an influential, though much smaller, Jewish community lived in a relative peaceful Muslim land. It is important not to idealise this relationship – non-Muslims were dhimmis, subject to restrictions such as heavier taxation. However, was no attempt to insist on the full implementation of these restrictions.

In the late 11th and 12th centuries, Moroccan Berbers took power and with little experience of religious minorities, the outlook for Jews and Christians grew worse. Many migrated north to Christian Spain where toleration was practised at the courts of Aragon and Castile. The Convivencia ended with anti-Jewish riots in 1391 which resulted, eventually, in the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in 1492.

Despite this, the seeds of tolerance lay dormant before flourishing during the Age of Enlightenment, beginning with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which allowed both Catholic and Lutheran states to coexist within the Habsburg Empire. Later, in 1689, John Locke in his “A Letter Concerning Toleration” proposed freedom to worship in England for Jews, but drew the line at atheists and Catholics, believing that they would undermine the stability of the state. Around the same time, the Quaker leader William Penn wrote his “Great Case of Liberty and Conscience” from Newgate prison, but only Christians were eligible to vote or hold office in his colony of Pennsylvania.

It is Pierre Bayle to whom we must turn, for it was he who publicly expressed the view that the implementation of Christian doctrine must be grounded in the recognition of the autonomy of the individual conscience. Baruch, later called Benedict, Spinoza expressed the principle of toleration and a century later Emperor Joseph II of Austria issued an Edict of Tolerance in 1782, granted to the major non-Catholic denominations and aimed also at encouraging the integration and assimilation of Jews into Christian society.

It wasn’t long before the book Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted in 1789 by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It asserted: “No one may be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious ones, as long as the manifestation of such opinions does not interfere with the established Law and Order.” Whilst this principle has become the norm in Western societies, its implementation has been more than imperfect.

Indeed, there was and remains an ambivalence to legislating tolerance, epitomised by Voltaire, the advocate of universal human rights, who has also been seen as the father of secular, racial antisemitism because the granting of equal rights was made on the condition that Jews once “civilised” would readily adopt Christianity and contemporary social laws. In the words of Heinrich Heine, abandoning Judaism was the cost of the ticket to European civilization.

So, while we may no longer possess the easy optimism of the Enlightenment, at least the common language of toleration is now available to all. In the end, it is up to God to judge humankind on religious matters. I sympathise with John Locke who suggested there is no “judge upon Earth” to decide “the truth of doctrine and the purity of worship”, adding: “The decision of that question belongs only to the Supreme judge of all men, to whom also alone belongs the punishment of the erroneous.”

More than 300 years have passed and isn’t it about time for all religions to postpone their disputes until the Final Days? In the meantime, I suggest, we live and let live.

Next week is: U is for Universalism

Listen to each episode of ‘An A-Z of Believing: from Atheism to Zealotry’ on the Woolf Institute podcast site or wherever you get your podcasts

Written and presented by Dr Ed Kessler MBE, founder and director of the Cambridge-based Woolf Institute, this compelling guide to religious belief and scepticism is a must-read for believers and nonbelievers alike.

Founded in 1998 to explore the relationship between religion and society, the Woolf Institute uses research and education to foster understanding between people of all beliefs with the aim of reducing prejudice and intolerance.

Says Dr Kessler: “Latest surveys suggest that 85 per cent of the world’s population identify themselves as belonging to a specific religion, and in many parts of the world the most powerful actors in civil society are religious. Understanding religion and belief, the role they play and their impact on behaviour and decision-making is, therefore, vital.”

Dr Kessler – who was awarded an MBE for services to interfaith relations in 2011 – is an affiliated lecturer with the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, a principal of the Cambridge Theological Federation and additionally teaches at the Cambridge Muslim College.

He says: “This A-Z of Believing aims to show how the encounter between religions has influenced and been influenced by the evolution of civilisation and culture, both for good and for ill. I hope that a better understanding of believing will lead people to realise that while each religion is separate, they are also profoundly connected.”