ABSTRACT
The faithful preach virtue, and appeal to Scripture, mediated by Church or Synagogue, as their authority, the revealed word of God. The appeal is powerful, for the Bible and the traditions rooted in it have provided the language and inspiration for many of the greatest moral achievements of humanity. This chapter addresses the problem of whether and how someone committed to a tolerant, pluralistic view of society can continue to regard as sacred a tradition which contains intolerant, exclusivist texts. The Bible and rabbinic literature contain resources for tolerance as well as for intolerance. Part of the 'solution' to the problem of handling intolerant texts lies in giving primacy to the tolerant ones. The Bible divides people into Israelites (those faithful to God) and 'the nations' (idolators), and takes an overwhelmingly negative view of the latter. The rabbis took a somewhat less malign view of the pagans amongst whom they lived.
