Synopses & Reviews
As religious violence flares around the world, we are confronted with an acute dilemma: Can people coexist in peace when their basic beliefs are irreconcilable? Benjamin Kaplan responds by taking us back to early modern Europe, when the issue of religious toleration was no less pressing than it is today.
Divided by Faithbegins in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, when the unity of western Christendom was shattered, and takes us on a panoramic tour of Europe's religious landscape--and its deep fault lines--over the next three centuries. Kaplan's grand canvas reveals the patterns of conflict and toleration among Christians, Jews, and Muslims across the continent, from the British Isles to Poland. It lays bare the complex realities of day-to-day interactions and calls into question the received wisdom that toleration underwent an evolutionary rise as Europe grew more "enlightened." We are given vivid examples of the improvised arrangements that made peaceful coexistence possible, and shown how common folk contributed to toleration as significantly as did intellectuals and rulers. Bloodshed was prevented not by the high ideals of tolerance and individual rights upheld today, but by the pragmatism, charity, and social ties that continued to bind people divided by faith.
Divided by Faithis both history from the bottom up and a much-needed challenge to our belief in the triumph of reason over faith. This compelling story reveals that toleration has taken many guises in the past and suggests that it may well do the same in the future.
Review
At this moment, there may be no more important story than the one Europeans and Americans proudly tell themselves about the rise of religious toleration. So please take note of Benjamin J. Kaplan's argument that the story may be dangerously flawed...Contrary to the once-popular notion that religious toleration rose steadily from the Middle Ages through the Protestant Reformation and on to the Enlightenment, Mr. Kaplan maintains that religious toleration declined from around 1550 to 1750...Divided by Faithends with five words that sum up its message and could serve as a motto for historical studies generally: "the possibility of other options."
Review
Divided by Faithis an original, brilliant, and utterly compelling account of the origins of religious tolerance. For divided communities or civilizations on the brink, it bears a timely and reassuring message from history: living tolerably with an irreconcilable enemy is a far lesser burden than war.
About the Author
Benjamin J. Kaplanis Professor of Dutch History, <>University College Londonand the <>University of Amsterdam.
Table of Contents
List of Maps and Illustrations
Introduction
I. Obstacles
1. A Holy Zeal
Christian piety in the confessional age
2. Corpus Christianum
The community as religious body
3. Flashpoints
The events that triggered violence
4. One Faith, One Law, One King
How religion and politics intersected
II. Arrangements
5. The Gold Coin
Ecumenical experiments
6. Crossing Borders
Traveling to attend services
7. Fictions of Privacy
House chapels
8. Sharing Churches, Sharing Power
Official pluralism
III. Interactions
9. A Friend to the Person
Individual and group relations
10. Transgressions
Conversion and intermarriage
11. Infidels
Muslims and Jews in Christian Europe
IV. Changes
12. Enlightenment?
The "rise of toleration" reconsidered
Notes
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index