ABSTRACT
Introduction There is much talk in the academic and popular press of ‘the crisis of liberalism’. While liberalism is associated with tolerance, especially religious tolerance, religious conflict appears to permeate modern politics in both Europe and Asia. In particular, there is the widely held view that the traditional separation of the church and the state (or sacred and profane) is no longer relevant or even workable in modern multicultural and multifaith societies. Liberal tolerance in the West in the late seventeenth century was a response to the religious wars that had so profoundly disturbed the peace in Europe. The famous Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 brought to an end the Thirty Years’ War and promised to bring to a conclusion the dynastic competition of Europe and the conflicts between Protestant and Catholic communities. The Treaty recognized the right of princes to determine which faith would predominate in their lands; it sought to make religion a matter of private conscience rather than public identity; it confirmed the dominance of Protestantism in northern Germany and Catholicism in southern Germany; and finally Calvinism was given the same status as Lutheranism. Princes had the right to expel religious groups who did not accept the terms of the Treaty. However, since Europe’s population was in decline, princes were looking to keep their subjects rather than to expel them. There was therefore a strong economic motive for religious tolerance.
