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Books in Review

An examination of the history of toleration compels us to confront some of liberalism’s most cherished ideas: that social, racial, and religious toleration is a consequence of the Enlightenment victory over the superstitious and narrow-minded past; that the primacy of individual conscience and the development of the neutral state are what allowed the pluralism of modern society to have developed, and, without pluralism, there is no toleration; that the reduction of ethnic and religious hatred and conflict requires, therefore, that we leave our particular identities and religious commitments behind a veil of ignorance in order to construct and to enjoy a peaceful world. The two works under review provide a reappraisal of the history of toleration and in so doing they challenge our prevailing view. Nederman seeks to show that the toleration that is so much a virtue of contemporary liberal democracies is not impossible a priori in other political, social, and religious contexts. Murphy, by contrast, demonstrates that individual conscience in early modern England and America was a source of intolerance and violence. Nederman is among this generation’s most insightful and prolific scholars of the history of political ideas. His scholarship includes fresh translations of several important medieval works, studies of John of Salisbury and Marsiglio of Padua, and essays on economics, mirror literature, and Aristotelianism; all considered by many to be essential reading in the field. Worlds of Difference is no exception. It provides a sophisticated overview of ideas about tolerance in Europe from 1100 to 1550, and complements his earlier work with John Christian Laursen on this subject. In brief, Nederman argues that ideas about toleration are not only present throughout this period, but exemplify it. He includes John of Salisbury, Marsiglio of Padua, and Nicholas of Cusa who are well established, in part because of Nederman’s own work, as typically