The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit
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.