A Letter Concerning Toleration
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A Letter Concerning Toleration
''A Letter Concerning Toleration'' by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, and it was immediately translated into other languages. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. This "letter" is addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir": this was actually Locke's close friend Philipp van Limborch, who published it without Locke's knowledge. Background In the wake of discovery of the Rye House Plot and Charles II's persecution of the Whigs, Locke fled England to Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic in September 1683. Throughout his life, Locke had taken an interest in the debate about religious toleration. The question was much debated in Holland during Locke's stay, and in October 1685 Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes that had guaranteed religious toleration for French Protestants. In ...
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Letter Concerning Toleration
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabet, either as written or in a particular type font. * Rehearsal letter in an orchestral score Communication * Letter (message), a form of written communication ** Mail * Letters, the collected correspondence of a writer or historically significant person ** Maktubat (other), the Arabic word for collected letters **Pauline epistles, addressed by St. Paul to various communities or congregations, such as "Letters to the Galatians" or "Letters to the Corinthians", and part of the canonical books of the Bible * The letter as a form of second-person literature; see Epistle ** Epistulae (Pliny) ** Epistolary novel, a long-form fiction composed of letters (epistles) * Open letter, a public letter as distinguished from private corresponde ...
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Leviathan (Hobbes Book)
''Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil'', commonly referred to as ''Leviathan'', is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature (" the war of all against all") could be avoided only by strong, undivided government. Content Title The title of Hobbes's treatise alludes to the Leviathan mentioned in the Book of Job. In contrast to the simply informative titles usually given to works of early modern political philosophy, such as John Locke's ''Two Treatises of Government'' or Hobbes' ...
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High Church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originated in and has been principally associated with the Anglican tradition, where it describes churches using a number of ritual practices associated in the popular mind with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The opposite tradition is '' low church''. Contemporary media discussing Anglican churches erroneously prefer the terms evangelical to ''low church'' and Anglo-Catholic to ''high church'', even though their meanings do not exactly correspond. Other contemporary denominations that contain high church wings include some Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches. Variations Because of its history, the term ''high church'' also refers to aspects of Anglicanism quite distinct from the Oxford Movement or Anglo-Catholicism. There rema ...
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Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a variety of forms originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophecies, among other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text can vary. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible. It is called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning ''five books'') in Greek; the second oldest part was a coll ...
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One True Religion
Religious exclusivism, or exclusivity, is the doctrine or belief that only one particular religion or belief system is true. This is in contrast to religious pluralism. Buddhism Some attempts have been made to portray Buddhism in an exclusivistic framework by pointing out that the implication that those who do not accept the teachings of the Buddha, such as the Eightfold Path, are destined to repeat the cycle of suffering through endless reincarnations; while those who practice the true way can reach enlightenment. Neo-Buddhist groups sometimes consider their tradition the true path to enlightenment and engage in strong evangelical efforts to influence those they consider to be in darkness. Several sects associated with Nichiren Buddhism may be included in this category. However, many followers of Eastern religions are not exclusivist. For example, there are millions of Buddhists who would also consider themselves to follow Confucianism or Taoism. Christianity Some Christians ...
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Toleration
Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining "toleration" as a set of social or political practices and "tolerance" as a set of attitudes." ''Random House Dictionary'' defines tolerance as "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own". Both these concepts inherently contain the idea of alterity, the state of ''otherness.'' Additional choices of how to respond to the "other," beyond toleration, do exist. Therefore, in some instances, toleration has been seen as ‘a flawed virtue’ because it concerns acceptance of things that were better overcome. Toleration cannot, therefore, be defined as a universal good, and many of its applications and uses remain contested. Religious toleration may signify "n ...
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Essay Concerning Human Understanding
''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' is a work by John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. It first appeared in 1689 (although dated 1690) with the printed title ''An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding''. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate (''tabula rasa'', although he did not use those actual words) filled later through experience. The essay was one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley. Book I of the ''Essay'' is Locke's attempt to refute the rationalist notion of innate ideas. Book II sets out Locke's theory of ideas, including his distinction between passively acquired ''simple ideas''—such as "red," "sweet," "round"—and actively built ''complex ideas'', such as numbers, causes and effects, abstract ideas, ideas of substances, identity, and diversity. Locke also distinguishes between the truly existing ...
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Secularity
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negatively or positively, may be considered secular. Linguistically, a process by which anything becomes secular is named ''secularization'', though the term is mainly reserved for the secularization of society; and any concept or ideology promoting the secular may be termed ''secularism'', a term generally applied to the ideology dictating no religious influence on the public sphere. Definitions Historically, the word ''secular'' was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin which would relate to any mundane endeavour. However, the term, saecula saeculorumsaeculōrumbeing the genitive plural of saeculum) as found in the New Testament in the Vulgate translation (circa 410) of the original Koine Greek phrase ('' ...
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Natural Law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted laws of a state or society). According to natural law theory (called jusnaturalism), all people have inherent rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by "God, nature, or reason." Natural law theory can also refer to "theories of ethics, theories of politics, theories of civil law, and theories of religious morality." In the Western tradition, it was anticipated by the pre-Socratics, for example in their search for principles that governed the cosmos and human beings. The concept of natural law was documented in ancient Greek philosophy, including Aristotle, and was referred to in ancient Roman philosophy by Cicero. References to it are also to be found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and were later expou ...
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Atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists. The first individuals to identify themselves as atheists lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. The French Revolution, noted for its "unprecedented atheism", witnessed the first significant political movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human reason.Extract of page 22
In 1967, Albania declared itself the first official atheist coun ...
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John Marshall (historian)
John Marshall is a British historian. He was the Chairman of the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University, and is now Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History at the same institution. Life He was awarded BA (1st Class Hons.) and an MA at Churchill College, Cambridge, as well as an MA and PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Marshall has written two books on the English philosopher and political theorist John Locke. Edward G. Andrew of the University of Toronto wrote that Marshall's ''John Locke: Resistance, Religion and Responsibility'' was "the most careful and comprehensive treatment of Locke's political theology I have read". Julian H. Franklin of Columbia University said that "the elaborate and extended account of Locke's positions on ecclesiology and theology is essentially the first complete study of Locke's thought in that domain and is unrivaled in the literature". Perez Zagorin Perez Zagorin (May 20, 1 ...
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Scott Sowerby
Scott Sowerby is a Canadian historian and Associate Professor in the Department of History, Northwestern University. He was awarded a PhD from Harvard University in 2006. His book ''Making Toleration: The Repealers and the Glorious Revolution'' was awarded the Royal Historical Society's The Whitfield Prize and was shortlisted for Phi Beta Kappa Society's Ralph Waldo Emerson Award.Profile
at Northwestern University's website. The book is about 's allies in repealing penal laws against religious minorities (such as the and