Denis Lacorne: The Limits of Tolerance

ORIGINALLY RELEASED 10 FEBRUARY 2024 · 1 HR 37 MIN · SEASON 1, EPISODE 17

Professor Denis Lacorne joins Samuel Woodall to examine how toleration developed, where it reaches its limits and why rival models of secularism still matter.

Listen

Episode summary

Toleration is both an Enlightenment ideal and a difficult political practice. Denis Lacorne traces its historical development through debates about religious freedom and the authority of the state, showing that toleration has never meant simple indifference. It depends upon institutions, legal limits and competing judgments about conscience, public order and citizenship.

The interview compares different traditions of secularism and considers anti-blasphemy laws and the governance of religious diversity. These questions reveal why the language of tolerance can protect pluralism while also marking the boundaries that political communities impose upon belief and expression.

Questions explored

• How did toleration emerge from early modern religious conflict?
• What distinguishes toleration, religious freedom and secularism?
• Where should law draw boundaries around blasphemy and expression?
• Can political institutions manage religious diversity without imposing a single model of belief?

Participants

• Samuel Woodall: Host of Beyond the Text, intellectual historian and PhD candidate at the University of Buckingham.
• Denis Lacorne: Emeritus Research Director at Sciences Po’s Centre for International Studies, whose research covers national identity, multiculturalism, religion, secularism and regimes of tolerance.

Sources and further reading

• Denis Lacorne, The Limits of Tolerance: Enlightenment Values and Religious Fanaticism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019).
• John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, ed. James H. Tully (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983).

Transcript and original show notes

The original Buzzsprout page contains the complete episode description and any transcript or chapter material supplied with the recording. Open the original episode page.