ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reflections on famous Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and his struggles to come to terms with the idea of tolerance and how to explain it convincingly to his audience by way of a theater play, Nathan der Weise. It examines the sixteenth-century voices who were significantly involved in the Protestant Reformation and subsequent church history, but who soon found themselves on the other side of the, by then, suddenly rather orthodox and conservative Protestant authorities. The chapter focuses on the writings by Sebastian Franck and Valentin Weigel, both of who turned into major sources of influence on subsequent generations. Curiously, Franck and Weigel did not essentially differ from the medieval philosophers insofar as they were devout Christians and demonstrated a very firm belief. The chapter suggests that the contemporary discourse on tolerance must rely also on the pre-modern voices both in literature, philosophy, and theology.
