John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture

John Marshall is Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of John Locke: Resistance, Religion, and Responsibility (1994).

• Part I. Catholic and Protestant Intolerance in the Later Seventeenth Century: 1. Catholic intolerance, its representations in England c.1678–86, and Locke's Second Treatise; 2. Catholic intolerance and the significance of its representations in England, Ireland, and the Netherlands c.1687–92; 3. Protestant religious intolerance in England c.1660–c.1700; 4. Religious toleration and intolerance in the Netherlands and in the Huguenot community in exile; Part II. Justifications of Intolerance and the Emergence of Arguments for Toleration: Section 1: Justifications of Intolerance to c.1660: 5. Patristic and medieval sources of early modern intolerance: anathematising heretics and schismatics as seditious, pestilential poisoners, 'libertines' and 'sodomites'; 6. Heresy and schism, sedition and treason, and 'contrarities' and 'inversions' in the 'Last Days'; 7. Catholic and 'Magisterial Reformation' attacks on Anabaptism, Anti-Trinitarianism, and Atheism; 8. Anathematising heretics in sixteenth and early seventeenth century French religious polemic; 9. Antiheretical and antischismatic literature in England from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century; Section 2: The Emergence of Tolerationist Arguments and their Condemnation: 10. Early tolerationist arguments and their condemnation; 11. Arguments for and against religious toleration in the Netherlands c.1579–c.1680; 12. Toleration and intolerance, Jews and Muslims; Section 3: Catholic and Protestant Defences of Intolerance in the Later Seventeenth Century: 13. Catholic justifications of intolerance in the 1680s and 1690s; 14. Huguenot justifications of intolerance and debates over resistance in the 1680s and 1690s; 15. Justifying intolerance in England c.1660–c.1700; Part III. The 'Early Enlightenment' Defence of Toleration and the 'Republic of Letters' in the 1680s and 1690s: 16. Tolerationist associations in the 1680s and 1690s and virtuous service in the cause of toleration in the 'early enlightenment republic of letters'; 17. Political and economic arguments for religious toleration in the 1680s and 1690s; 18. Toleration, 'heretics' and 'schismatics'; 19. Toleration and Jews, Muslims, and 'Pagans'; 20. The historical argument for toleration and 'early Enlightenment' advocacy of 'humanity' and 'civility'; 21. Epistemological, philological, theological, and ethical arguments for religious toleration; 22. Toleration and the intolerant, Catholics, 'Atheists', 'Libertines' and 'sodomites'.

Review of the hardback: 'A powerful piece of scholarship - brilliantly conceived, breath-taking in scope, and rich in historical insight - it will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars across a range of disciplines (history, religion, political science, philosophy, history of science, literature, and queer studies). … a remarkable scholarly accomplishment. Marshall's book is surely destined to become a classic.' Catholic Historical Review