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Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence: The Ambivalent Legacies of the Reformation

Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence: The Ambivalent Legacies of the Reformation Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence:The Ambivalent Legacies of the ReformationBy Alexandra WalshamOne of the enduring myths of the origins of modern Western liberalism towhich we still cling is the tradition of linking the Reformation with the riseof toleration. The notion that Protestantism helped to sow the seeds for advanced ideas of freedom of conscience and laid the foundations for practicalarrangements that facilitated the acceptance of religious diversity is part ofanother resilient paradigm: the story of the Reformation’s role as an agent ofprogress and as a stepping stone towards the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Integral to the teleological tale of how the values we regard as central toour civilisation came into being, it is also deeply entwined with the patrioticnarratives that underpin Anglo-American senses of national identity. It entailsan element of self-satisfaction and self-congratulation that is profoundly atodds with the rampant and pervasive intolerance that lurks under the surfaceof twenty-first-century society and increasingly erupts into public view. Ironically, especially in Britain, this whiggish myth also embodies and perpetuatesa related prejudice: the latent anti-Catholicism enshrined in the black legendof the intolerant medieval Inquisition and of the scheming Jesuits, in thelingering memory of the Protestant martyrs burnt during the reign of QueenMary I, and in http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation History de Gruyter

Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence: The Ambivalent Legacies of the Reformation

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References (3)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2017 by Gütersloher Verlagshaus
eISSN
2198-0489
DOI
10.14315/arg-2017-0121
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Toleration, Pluralism, and Coexistence:The Ambivalent Legacies of the ReformationBy Alexandra WalshamOne of the enduring myths of the origins of modern Western liberalism towhich we still cling is the tradition of linking the Reformation with the riseof toleration. The notion that Protestantism helped to sow the seeds for advanced ideas of freedom of conscience and laid the foundations for practicalarrangements that facilitated the acceptance of religious diversity is part ofanother resilient paradigm: the story of the Reformation’s role as an agent ofprogress and as a stepping stone towards the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Integral to the teleological tale of how the values we regard as central toour civilisation came into being, it is also deeply entwined with the patrioticnarratives that underpin Anglo-American senses of national identity. It entailsan element of self-satisfaction and self-congratulation that is profoundly atodds with the rampant and pervasive intolerance that lurks under the surfaceof twenty-first-century society and increasingly erupts into public view. Ironically, especially in Britain, this whiggish myth also embodies and perpetuatesa related prejudice: the latent anti-Catholicism enshrined in the black legendof the intolerant medieval Inquisition and of the scheming Jesuits, in thelingering memory of the Protestant martyrs burnt during the reign of QueenMary I, and in

Journal

Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte - Archive for Reformation Historyde Gruyter

Published: Oct 26, 2017

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