Abstract

This Handbook challenges the view--widely held today--that religious toleration is a specifically modern, liberal, and Western concept. To the contrary, it shows that principles of religious coexistence have been articulated since recorded history. As many cultures have recognized across times and places, toleration in some form is a key virtue for enabling peaceful coexistence and human flourishing. Yet owing to its very cross-cultural prevalence, “toleration” has meant many different things in theory and practice. To properly understand it, much less evaluate it, a historical and comparative perspective is necessary. This Handbook provides a foundation for the comparative and historical study of religious toleration. Gathering together primary sources and original analytic essays by leading scholars, it offers the first comprehensive reference work on how toleration has been theorized and practiced across cultures, religions, and historical periods. The primary sources compiled, moreover, span a rich array of genres, including literary works, religious texts, theological, poems and political edicts. Radically shifting the terms of contemporary debates about toleration, this sourcebook provides an indispensable resource to all scholars of religion, comparative politics, and globalization, and to students and teachers alike.