Juan Pablo Domínguez, researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, has coordinated a special issue of the scientific journal History of European Ideas. The Issue includes eight papers presented at the international congress 'Religious Toleration in the Age of Enlightenment (1650-1800)', held at the Institute for Culture and Society in June 2015.

The special issue examines how the ideal of religious tolerance was formed and spread during the Enlightenment, as well as reviewing the ideas of authors such as John Locke and Pierre Bayle. "The articles highlight the contributions of thinkers and currents today forgotten. They also analyze the relationship between theory and internship of religious tolerance," says Professor Dominguez.

Authors from centers in five countries

The eight authors come from academic centers in Bulgaria, Chile, Spain, the USA and the Netherlands, including Rutgers University, Complutense University of Madrid and Leiden University.

The congress focused on two main lines. The first was to trace the many Enlightenment legacies present in dominant discourses on religion and freedom. The second was to reconsider existing narratives about the place of the Enlightenment in the history of toleration, with the goal to examine more critically the assumptions underlying recent debates about religious freedom.

History of European Ideas is published by the British group Taylor & Francis and is dedicated to the dissemination of content on post-Renaissance history in Europe. It approaches these topics from various fields such as political thought, economics, Philosophy and science, among others, which makes it an interdisciplinary publication.

Articles and authors

• Introduction: Religious toleration in the Age of Enlightenment, Juan Pablo Domínguez

• The long road to religious toleration: Emeric Crucé predecessor of the enlightenment, María José Villaverde

• John Owen and John Locke: confessionalism, doctrinal minimalism, and toleration, Manfred Svensson

• From practice to theory to practice: William Penn from prison to the founding of Pennsylvania, Andrew R. Murphy

• Bayle's political doctrine: a proposal to articulate tolerance and sovereignty, Marta García-Alonso

• Deism, freethinking and toleration in Enlightenment England, Diego Lucci

• Radical tolerance in early enlightenment Europe, Lionel Laborie

• A State Within the State: The Inquisition in Enlightenment Thought, Juan Pablo Domínguez