Liberalism and the Christian Origins of Tolerance
Tolerance is usually regarded as “the quintessential liberal value.” This position is supported by a standard liberal history that views religious toleration as emerging from the post-Reformation wars of religion as the solution to the problem of religious violence. Requiring the separation of church from state, tolerance was secured by giving the state the sole authority to punish religious violence and to protect the individual freedoms of conscience and religion. This standard liberal history exerts a powerful hold on the modern imagination: it undergirds several important recent accoun...
Source: princeton.edu