ABSTRACT
The historical emergence of religious toleration in the early modern world represented a hard-earned modicum of security for marginalized groups, and a welcome end to persecution. That said, toleration has frequently been criticized as a half-hearted, minimalistic set of arrangements that falls far short of broader notions of liberty, equality, and respect. In this chapter, I offer a very brief overview of the history of toleration as it grew out of the religious realm and into broader categories of social life, particularly its relationship to liberties of speech, press, and assembly. I conclude with some reflections on the contemporary promise as well as the potential limitations of toleration as a model for addressing various types of social difference. Without overstating the prospects of toleration for progressive politics, I point out that it lends itself to a particular type of issues, namely, those related to circling conscientious belief and practice.
