POL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Toleration, Freedom Of Religion, Forced Conversion
Document Summary
Locke was a staunch advocate for secularism. The secularism he advocated for is essentially the secularism people of our developed world live in. While his views are built upon his second treatise, in the letter of toleration, locke directly attacks hobbesian views regarding religion and statehood. Hobbes" sayings state that multiple sovereigns/magistrates will ensure disorder due to the prioritization of religious priorities over civil and political ones; to solve this problem, religious and civil authorities were to be united. A letter of toleration was first written in 1685 in latin, when locke was exiled to holland. When the letter was translated into english, locke had published it anonymously. Despite being several decades after the thirty years" war, religious toleration remained a foreign concept throughout europe; such toleration was rarely accepted in public life. The letter is locke"s response to john calvin"s genevan theocracy. The genevan theocracy is a democratic, puritan theocracy which manifested in colonial.
