Editing John Locke (section)

===Religious tolerance===
{{See also|Toleration#Locke}}
[[File:John Locke by Richard Westmacott.jpg|thumb|John Locke by [[Richard Westmacott]], University College London]]

Writing his ''[[A Letter Concerning Toleration|Letters Concerning Toleration]]'' (1689–1692) in the aftermath of the [[European wars of religion]], Locke formulated a classic reasoning for [[religious tolerance]], in which three arguments are central:<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Alister McGrath|last=McGrath|first=Alister|year=1998|title=Historical Theology, An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell Publishers|pages=214–215}}</ref>

# earthly judges, [[State (polity)|the state]] in particular, and human beings generally, cannot dependably evaluate the [[Truth claim|truth-claims]] of competing religious standpoints;
# even if they could, enforcing a single 'true religion' would not have the desired effect, because belief cannot be compelled by violence;
# coercing [[religious uniformity]] would lead to more social disorder than allowing diversity.

With regard to his position on religious tolerance, Locke was influenced by [[Baptist]] theologians like [[John Smyth (Baptist minister)|John Smyth]] and [[Thomas Helwys]], who had published [[Tract (literature)|tracts]] demanding [[Freedom of thought|freedom of conscience]] in the early 17th century.{{Sfn | Heussi | 1956}}{{Sfn | Olmstead | 1960 | p = 18}}<ref>{{cite journal|author-link=Henri H. Stahl|last=Stahl|first=H.|year=1957|title=Baptisten|language=de|journal=Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart|volume=3|issue=1|at=col. 863}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Halbrooks|first=G. Thomas|author2=Erich Geldbach|author3=Bill J. Leonard|author4=Brian Stanley|year=2011|title=Baptists|doi=10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_COM_01472|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/religion-past-and-present/*-COM_01472|journal=Religion Past and Present|access-date=2 June 2020|isbn=978-90-04-14666-2|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209175131/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/religion-past-and-present/*-COM_01472|url-status=live}}.</ref> Baptist theologian [[Roger Williams]] founded the colony of [[Rhode Island]] in 1636, where he combined a [[Democracy|democratic constitution]] with unlimited religious freedom. His tract, ''[[The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience]]'' (1644), which was widely read in the mother country, was a passionate plea for absolute religious freedom and the total [[separation of church and state]].{{Sfn | Olmstead | 1960 | pp = 102–105}} Freedom of conscience had had high priority on the theological, philosophical, and political agenda, as [[Martin Luther]] refused to recant his beliefs before the [[List of Imperial Diet participants (1792)|Diet]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] at [[Diet of Worms|Worms]] in 1521, unless he would be proved false by the Bible.{{Sfn | Olmstead | 1960 | p = 5}}