Abstract

This project examines the development of arguments concerning religious toleration, liberty of conscience, and religious dissent in seventeenth-century England and early colonial America. Employing a contextualist method to situate issues of toleration and dissent firmly within their specific historical and political perspectives, I focus on four cases. Two of these studies investigate religious dissent in the colonies, considering first-generation Massachusetts and Pennsylvania . The other two cases address important periods in the history of English religious and political thought: the Civil Wars and Protectorate , and the Exclusion Crisis and Glorious Revolution . ;Religious toleration represents a central element of the liberal democratic tradition as well as a bedrock value in Anglo-American constitutionalism, and this project seeks to provide a historically-grounded understanding of its evolution and development. I also draw out comparative insights suggested by the cases, including the importance of political context, the fear of anarchy, the ambiguous relationship between skepticism and toleration, and the important but highly nuanced relationship between religious extremism and religious liberty. In closing, I reflect upon the broader importance of early modern political thought to enduring questions of political thought and practice. I consider the tension between much contemporary liberal theory and religion , the relevance of conscience-based justifications of individual freedom for contemporary identity-based politics, and the role of individual tolerance or intolerance in fostering of individual freedom. The result is a historically-grounded project that both sheds light on the development of early liberal political thought and speaks to recurrent issues in religion, politics, and political theory