Conscience and Community
Subtitle: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: July 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 337
ISBN-13: 9780271021058
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; British & Irish history: c 1500 to c 1700; History of religion; Human rights; Modern Church (1648-; History - U.S.; Religion; England; North America; USA; Europe - Great Britain - General; United States - Colonial Period; Christianity - History - General; Modern - 17th Century; United States - General; 17th century; History; Massachusetts; Pennsylvania; Religious tolerance
Description: "Conscience and Community revisits the historical emergence of religious liberty in the Anglo-American tradition, looking deeper than the traditional account of the emergence of toleration to find not a series of self-evident or logically connected expansions but instead a far more complex evolution. Murphy argues that contemporary liberal theorists have misunderstood and misconstrued the actual historical development of toleration in theory and practice." "Murphy approaches the concept through three "myths" about religious toleration: that it was opposed only by ignorant, narrow-minded persecutors; that it was achieved by skeptical Enlightenment rationalists; and that tolerationist arguments generalize easily from religion to issues such as gender, race ethnicity, and sexuality, providing a basis for identity politics. The book seeks a renewed appreciation of the specificity that made religious toleration so divisive as well as the general tension between conscience and community that persists in contemporary societies."--Jacket.