Product Description

Reconsidering one of our central political dogmas, a distinguished theologian argues that the principle of toleration-as reformulated over the last four centuries-is not the bulwark of social harmony that it appears. In a new book from Spence Publishing, A. J. Conyers shows that toleration, by banishing questions of ultimate meaning from public life, has aided the consolidation of power in the state while debasing our politics and undermining social cohesion.

It is customary to regard the principle of toleration as the reasonable and humane solution to the religious strife that ravaged Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The real history of toleration, however, is considerably more complicated. Professor Conyers shows that the new nation-states of early modern Europe-comprehensive, jealous, and demanding-propagated a novel version of toleration based on indifference to all values other than political power and material prosperity. By dissolving the loyalties that bound men to their church, their family, and the other intermediate institutions, toleration produced the modern "bi-polar society," in which the isolated citizen confronts the unmediated power of the state. In its modern form, then, toleration is not a virtue but a strategy for the relentless imposition of secularism in the service of power and profit.

Professor Conyers attacks the modern superstition that our only choice is between bloody sectarian conflict and the suppression of all transcendent concerns. A more authentic model of toleration is to be found, surprisingly enough, in pre-Reformation Christianity, which preached humility rather than indifference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1577635 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-30
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.38 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

From Library Journal
Conyers (theology, Baylor Univ.; How To Read the Bible) examines the philosophy of toleration and its application through history, tracing the path of this rarely questioned principle to its current place in our culture and government. By examining the concept of tolerance as viewed by Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Bayle, John Locke, and others, he shows that, historically, toleration has existed in groups and societies that had moral purposes and a conscience. Whereas toleration had historically been group related, now we see individual personal preference as a major basis for toleration. Conyers contends that as a public policy tolerance is used to lay the ground for peace and harmony, but instead of protecting minority groups, it allows for the centralization of power and indifference to values. Conyers believes that there is a need, in humility, to recover God's overall purpose of "telos," a morality that recognizes final causes. This thought-provoking study is recommended for academic libraries. George Westerlund, formerly with the Providence P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Conyers is a professor at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary and the author of The End: What Jesus Really Said about the Last Things (1995) and How to Read the Bible (1986). He now considers the concept of toleration and contends that the developing nation-states of the seventeenth century transformed toleration from an ancient and universal practice based on humility to a strategy for governing and controlling increasingly diverse populations. The result, he charges, is that differences between cultures become minimized and that the influence of an individual culture that claims a universal validity such as religion becomes neutralized. Both conditions pave the way for a central government to extend its power. As nations assumed responsibility for trade, manufactures, banking, monetary policy, education of the young, and public welfare, the family and religion lost dignity, independence, and authority. Conyers analyzes the philosophical arguments of Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Bayle, and John Locke to show that the rise of toleration was not coincidental to the rise of the nation-state but rather a necessary condition. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Donald Livingston, Emory University
"Conyers calls for a restoration of the pre-modern conception of toleration..."