The Politics of Self-Preservation: Toleration and Identity in Pufendorf and Locke
Shortly after Locke’s return to England in 1689, his support for William’s cause was recognized by the offer of an ambassadorship to Brandenburg.2 It was an important post, not only because Frederick III had assisted William’s invasion, but also because he remained a crucial Continental ally in the ongoing struggle against France. Locke declined the offer, however, no doubt because his exile had been long enough already. Without his circle of expatriates in the Netherlands, most of whom had by now returned to England, as well as his other, Dutch friends, Berlin must have seemed a lonely place indeed, even if Locke’s earlier (1665–66) experience in Cleve, one of Brandenburg’s western territories, would have predisposed him to consider it a favorable context in at least some respects.3
Toleration and the Skeptical Inquirer in Locke
It is a noteworthy achievement of Western liberal democracies that they have largely relinquished the use of force against citizens whose lifestyles offend their members’ sensibilities, or alternatively which violate their members’ sense of truth. Toleration has become a central virtue in our public institutions. Powerful majorities are given over to restraint. They do not, by and large, expect the state to crush eccentrics, nonconformists, and other uncongenial minorities in their midst. What precipitated this remarkable evolution in our political culture? The road to toleration originates in the debates provoked by religious dissent in the early modem period. This road was paved in part by a grudging appreciation of the necessity for pragmaticaccommodation. The wars of religion that had devastated the Continent educated the political classes about the costs of persecution. A policy of state-imposed religious intolerance was widely understood to be imprudent. In the early modem period there occurs, however, a shift in the arguments adduced in support of the duty of toleration.
Religion and Political Civility: The Coming Generation of American Evangelicals
By and large, the reaction to the activities and pronouncements of the New Christian Right has been strongly negative. Emerging out of the reaction are various accusations that Evangelical Christianity represents a serious threat to the liberal traditions of democratic tolerance. Few attempts, however, have been made to measure this reaction against empirical evidence. This essay attempts to do just this for an important sub-population within Evangelicalism - a national sample of students attending Evangelical colleges and seminaries - those who will represent the lay and professional leadership of Evangelicalism in the coming generation. The broader implications of the Evangelical case are then discussed. In virtually all of the world religions, there are representative orthodoxies which are presently engaged in aggressive political action - Soga Gakkai in Buddhism, Rashstriya Swayam Savek in Hinduism, the Gush Emunim, Edah Haredit and Naturei Karta in Judaism, the Muslim Brotherhood and myriad other fundamentalist organizations and movements in Islam. In all cases, there is a wide-scale accusation that these groups represent a retrogressive political force, whose extremist policies and often violent political measures undermine national democratic processes and even international stability. In the United States the political initiatives of conservative Protestantism or Evangelicalism (through the New Christian Right) has prompted similar reactions. This study is concerned with the extent to which conservative Protestants in America present a viable threat to liberal democratic traditions of political tolerance. The special empirical focus here is the coming generation in American Evangelicalism, those who will constitute the rank and file as well as the professional leadership of conservative Protestantism in the next generation. In making this analysis, questions will be raised about the degree to which the Evangelical case can be seen as paradigmatic for all religious orthodoxies in advanced industrial societies.