1. JOHN LOCKE Locke (1632-1704): “A Letter Concerning Toleration”
LETTER ON TOLERATION
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

2. YOU TUBE VIDEO CLIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1OZdoDqFIw
QUESTIONS:
What is the only business of the CHURCH?
When did he write the letter and where was he?
How could this letter be better understood?
What is Locke’s final conclusion?
What should the STATE do to guarantee the citizens’ consent?
Could these principles of tolerance be extended to everyone in Locke’s opinion?
YOU TUBE VIDEO CLIP
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

3. .
QUOTATION
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

4. .
QUOTATION
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

5. DEFINITION of TOLERATION
Prohibiting legal discrimination against those of another (usually minority and religious) belief.
  Requiring equal treatment (usually of religious dissenters) under the law.
Prohibiting the use of force against religious dissenters to either limit their civil liberties or to change their beliefs.
DEFINITION of TOLERATION
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

6. Toleration: Locke’s Premises
1) When combined, religion and politics are essentially a means of causing “war”: a battle for domination/control/power through ideology; also, religious leaders often use belief to ferment war.
2)  The priesthood had perverted Christianity with two false beliefs:
           Variation of worship is a sin
        Christians have a duty to correct deviation and impose uniformity through force.
Locke believed true Christians could only use love and persuasion to change another’s beliefs.  This was a very radical idea in its time.
Toleration: Locke’s Premises
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

7. Toleration: Locke’s Premises
 3)  Force cannot induce religious change; it simply cannot be accomplished because belief is, by nature, individual and subjective in nature.
-- Martyrs everywhere and for all time would die before changing their beliefs
-- Attempts at forced change only creates hypocrites or violence (which are essentially sinful)
-- Spiritual epistemology cannot be empirically proven; there is no objective criteria for determining which set of beliefs is “better” or more valid
            (NOTE: Relationship to tabula rasa “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”)
-- A National Church of any creed is the worst form of these truths; it creates the most violence, social discord and hypocrisy.
Toleration: Locke’s Premises
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

8. Notably, despite Locke's then (and even now) radical defence of toleration, he excludes both atheists and Catholics, even though he explicitly protects Pagans, Muslims and Jews.  Why?
a) he believes that atheists are incapable of morality or, specifically, swearing oaths (such as swearing in, on a Bible, to a court case).   Without a belief in an afterlife, he argues, one cannot fear the ultimate consequence of immoral actions. 
b) Catholics are excluded because Rome was then as much a political body (a state) as a religious institution:  the Pope was legally an emperor and Rome had a standing army, which then waged actual war against other states and so on; thus, Locke concludes, a person could not hold allegiance to two separate states.
Exceptions
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

9. Conclusions: Locke's solutions
Toleration through separation of church and state.
 Toleration:   Removes the cause of hostility: it is one thing to argue about belief, but actual hostility occurs when one group forces another group to abide by its religious beliefs.
Breeds trust among dissenting believers: America is living proof of this.
Causes religious proliferation (many churches rather than one) which decentralizes power and makes it impossible for a single religious to control the state
Most Catholics excluded because they vow allegiance to the Pope, not their own state.
Conclusions:  Locke's solutions
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

10. Conclusions: Locke's solutions
2) Codified separation of state and church powers:
The state’s responsibility is entirely and only secular: to protect the public good (peace and security)
“the Magistrate has no Power to impose by his Laws, the use of any Rites and Ceremonies in any Church, so neither he has any Power to forbid the use of such Rites....” (41)
The church’s responsibility is entirely and only spiritual: to protect its members’ salvation
Thus, the state can only involve itself in those religious matters threatening the public good.
Conclusions:  Locke's solutions
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

11.  According to Locke, a church is
« a voluntary society of men joining themselves together of their own accord, in order to the public worshipping of God, in such a manner as they judge acceptable to him, and effectual to the salvation of their soul ».
Thus, a church can be only a voluntary association of people who make the free choice of being there and who can leave the group if it seems to be no longer appropriated to their salvation. So the rules which organise the association can't be imposed onto the whole society of England. The strongest power that a church has is to exclude a member from the community, but this member retains his civil rights, for « belonging to a church can't be an argument to prejudice another person in his civil enjoyments ». Civil rights are the same for all the citizens, whatever their denominations may be.
CHURCHES
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

12. Locke bases a great deal of his argumentation on religious considerations: he refers to the Bible in order to show that for the aim of Christianity, and the role of the church, the appropriate means are incompatible with terrestrial interest and the thirst for power. Indeed, the business of « true religion » is not the « striving for power and empire » .The only role of church is to guide Christians in their « war upon (their) own lusts and vices ». For that purpose, the church's servants have only one mean of action: « the exemplary holiness of their conversation », not violence and persecutions. « How easily the pretense of religion, and the care of soul serves for a cloak to covetousness and ambition ».
Toleration, for Locke, is an evident necessity both for Christian reasons and reasonable reasons.
CHURCHES
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

13. STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
Civil magistrates caring for men‘s souls is not only an absurdity to the common sense, for Locke, but also illegitimate (there is no legitimation by God for this in the Bible) and impossible: civil government has only one means, the laws, and these laws are not appropriate for inner and personal belief. Constraint can't persuade.
The interest of the commonwealth refers only to « life, liberty, health, and indolence of body; and the possession of outward things, such as money, lands, houses, furniture, and the like ». So, the State's role in the business of toleration is to guarantee civil rights and the civil peace: « laws provide, as much as is possible, that the goods and health of subjects be not injured by the fraud or the violence of the others ». To force someone by law to believe in what he doesn't want to believe is not only absurd for Locke but it's an offence done to God. The other consequence is that « neither pagan, nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion (...) the commonwealth which embraces indifferently all men that are honest, peaceable and industrious ».
Civil power can't interrupt a religious ceremony except if, in that ceremony, things forbidden in civil life (human sacrifices, for instance) are done, placing in danger the security and safety of Nation and people.  
STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

14. STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
A civil power which shows itself incapable of doing this job can be overthrown by the people: in that way, liberty of conscience is finally the more important thing.
So the laws of toleration must guarantee civil peace and the State is a sort of regulator.
According to Locke, wars and troubles are not caused by the diversity of opinions (religious, but also political) but by:
-      the refusal of toleration to those who are of different opinions
-      the insatiable desire for domination and the credulity of the multitude.
And it is this unstable climate which goes against civil peace and all liberties (and against economic prosperity finally).
« If the law of toleration were once so settled, that all churches were obliged to lay down toleration as a foundation of their own liberty; and teach that liberty of conscience is every man's natural right »
STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

15. QUESTIONS What are the three effects of toleration according to Locke?
What are the two false beliefs with which the priesthood had corrupted Christianity?
What is Locke’s definition of « belief»?
Why cannot force be used to impose a religious change of beliefs?
Is it possible according to Locke determine which set of belief is better?
What is Locke’s solution to stop bloody religious wars ?
Why are Catholics and Atheists excluded from toleration in Locke’s opinion?
QUESTIONS
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019

16. How does Locke define a church? What is the main feature of a church?
What is the State’s role in relation to toleration?
In which cases can a civil government interfere with a religious ceremony?
QUESTIONS
Raffaella Mannori CLIL JOHN LOCKE
13/01/2019