Religious Tolerance in the Atlantic World: Early Modern and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

The teleological impulse permeates the historiography of tolerance. According to traditional accounts, the medieval era was characterised by religious uniformity and the persecution of dissent. With the Reformation and the fragmentation of the Christian consensus in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, a number of dissident reformers, including Roger Williams, John Locke and John Milton, began to speak out in favour of freedom of conscience. Their groundbreaking calls for the toleration of religious pluralism were echoed on the Continent in the works of Sebastian Castellio and Hugo Grotius.1 Although they were met by fierce resistance, the story goes, these pioneering figures achieved a landmark victory with the passage of the Toleration Act in 1689, and laid the foundations for an era of enlightened diversity. The seeds of the tolerationist movement were carried across the Atlantic by Puritan founding fathers such as Roger Williams and William Penn and, later on, found fertile soil in the First Amendment, guaranteeing religious liberty, and the American ethos of welcoming immigrants.