Understanding John Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration
Understanding John Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration
A look at A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), written by John Locke, who advocated religious toleration.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A look at A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), written by John Locke, who advocated religious toleration.
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Transcript
KATHLEEN LYNCH: "The only business of the church is salvation of souls, and it is of no concern to the Commonwealth or any member in it whether this ceremony or that is part of that celebration." These are strong words from John Locke's "Letter Concerning Toleration." The letter was written in 1685 when Locke was in exile.
The exclusion crisis is the immediate context for Locke's "Letter Concerning Toleration." But we get a better understanding of this work when we think about the 150 year history of religious persecution and retribution and infighting that is one of the motifs that this exhibition has documented.
Locke had come to the conclusion that persecution and punishment would never secure consent to the state religion. And so it was in the best interest of the state to let people worship as they pleased. Now, Locke was very much a person of his own time. By that, I mean he was not willing to extend these privileges to Catholics or to atheists or to certain other religious groups.
We also have to understand that while Locke was composing his observations from abroad, there were lots and lots of religious nonconformists on the streets, especially the streets of London. So you really have to put together Locke's observations in a philosophical mode with the activity on the street to get a sense of what movements were forcing open the question of religious toleration.
The exclusion crisis is the immediate context for Locke's "Letter Concerning Toleration." But we get a better understanding of this work when we think about the 150 year history of religious persecution and retribution and infighting that is one of the motifs that this exhibition has documented.
Locke had come to the conclusion that persecution and punishment would never secure consent to the state religion. And so it was in the best interest of the state to let people worship as they pleased. Now, Locke was very much a person of his own time. By that, I mean he was not willing to extend these privileges to Catholics or to atheists or to certain other religious groups.
We also have to understand that while Locke was composing his observations from abroad, there were lots and lots of religious nonconformists on the streets, especially the streets of London. So you really have to put together Locke's observations in a philosophical mode with the activity on the street to get a sense of what movements were forcing open the question of religious toleration.