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Overview
This provocative book addresses one of the most enduring puzzles in political philosophy and constitutional theory--why is religion singled out for preferential treatment in both law and public discourse? Why, for example, can a religious soup kitchen get an exemption from zoning laws in order to expand its facilities to better serve the needy, while a secular soup kitchen with the same goal cannot? Why is a Sikh boy permitted to wear his ceremonial dagger to school while any other boy could be expelled for packing a knife? Why are religious obligations that conflict with the law accorded special toleration while other obligations of conscience are not?
In Why Tolerate Religion?, Brian Leiter argues that the reasons have nothing to do with religion, and that Western democracies are wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protections. He offers new insights into what makes a claim of conscience distinctively "religious," and draws on a wealth of examples from America, Europe, and elsewhere to highlight the important issues at stake. With philosophical acuity, legal insight, and wry humor, Leiter shows why our reasons for tolerating religion are not specific to religion but apply to all claims of conscience, and why a government committed to liberty of conscience is not required by the principle of toleration to grant exemptions to laws that promote the general welfare.
Editorials
GrrlScentist
The questions addressed in this book have been asked by many people throughout the decades, and are well-worth examining more rigorously. . . . This book's thesis is well-argued and promises to be thought-provoking for everyone who reads it.— Devorah Bennu
New Statesman
A model of clarity and rigour and at points strikingly original, this is a book that anyone who thinks seriously about religion, ethics and politics will benefit from reading.— John Gray
A slim volume, deeply conversant with the literature in law and philosophy, and by turns bold, bracing and bruising, Why Tolerate Religion? should command the attention of anyone interested in the place of faith in the public arena.
— Glenn C. Altschuler
GrrlScentist -
The questions addressed in this book have been asked by many people throughout the decades, and are well-worth examining more rigorously. . . . This book's thesis is well-argued and promises to be thought-provoking for everyone who reads it.
New Statesman -
A model of clarity and rigour and at points strikingly original, this is a book that anyone who thinks seriously about religion, ethics and politics will benefit from reading.
Jerusalem Post -
A slim volume, deeply conversant with the literature in law and philosophy, and by turns bold, bracing and bruising, Why Tolerate Religion? should command the attention of anyone interested in the place of faith in the public arena.
Barnes & Noble Review -
Why Tolerate Religion? is a closely argued and thought-provoking examination of questions that will only become more important in our increasingly multicultural world.
Magonia Review of Books -
The arguments in this book can not be adequately summarized in a reasonably short review, as they are rather complex, but is well worth studying, as it is an important subject, especially for those who have any responsibility for law-making.J
Morning Star -
Overall, Leiter's judicious and penetrating volume is an excellent example of how philosophy can be brought to bear on practical issues of the day.
The Barnes & Noble Review
Several years ago, the Canadian Supreme Court heard a case involving a Sikh boy who wanted to be able to carry a ceremonial dagger, or kirpan, to school. Ordinarily, blades and weapons are banned from school grounds; but the court, recognizing that the kirpan is an important emblem of Sikh religious identity, ruled in favor of the boy. The case raises in stark form the question that law professor Brian Leiter asks in the title of Why Tolerate Religion? Imagine, Leiter writes, that the boy in question was not a Sikh but the product of a rural family, for whom carrying a knife was seen as a badge of manhood; imagine the knife had been handed down from father to son for generations. If that boy asked to carry his knife to school, not a court in Canada would have ruled in his favor. Religion alone, Leiter observes, has the power to suspend the usual rules, in the name of toleration. Is this just?
There are, of course, a number of rejoinders that immediately come to mind. A government should respect its citizens' consciences, since everyone finds it intolerable to have his or her most cherished beliefs interfered with. A free society benefits from a diversity of religious beliefs and traditions. Pragmatically speaking, it would be impossible to force all citizens to share the same religious beliefs. All of these answers Leiter accepts at the outset, and then sets aside. He is not interested in whether it is wise, beneficial, or practical to interfere with religion, nor does he doubt that liberty of conscience is a cherished right. Rather, his narrow focus in this long essay is whether there is a principled reason why a society should tolerate religion, even when the dominant group in that society disapproves of the religion in question and has the power to suppress it.
In the course of answering the question, Leiter covers a lot of philosophical and legal ground. He examines the thought of John Rawls and John Locke as it pertains to the question of religious toleration; he offers a neutral definition of religion that emphasizes the way it makes categorical demands and resists ordinary standards of evidence; and he asks whether an established religion, such as the Church of England, is necessarily a form of intolerance. Leiter is especially concerned with the French policy of laïcité, which bans all religious expression in the public sphere, and which came under heavy criticism when France prohibited Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in school.
Leiter criticizes that policy, arguing that there is a crucial difference between allowing citizens to identify themselves as members of a particular faith and using the state to advance that faith. Even though every state, including the U.S., promotes what Leiter calls a "Vision of the Good," he insists that it "cannot...try to shut down private citizens who support a different Vision of the Good." Finally, he arrives at the conclusion that there is no good reason to favor religious conscience over other forms of conscience; either you allow both the Sikh and the country boy to carry knives, or you should prohibit both of them. Why Tolerate Religion? is a closely argued and thought-provoking examination of questions that will only become more important in our increasingly multicultural world.
Adam Kirsch is a senior editor at The New Republic and a columnist for Nextbook.org. He is the author of Why Trilling Matters, Benjamin Disraeli, and The Modern Element: Essays on Contemporary Poetry.
Reviewer: Adam Kirsch