Tolerance or Toleration? How to Deal with Religious Conflicts in Europe

Abstract

In this paper I distinguish between tolerance and toleration as competing attitudes towards religious diversity. I stipulate a definition of tolerance as a non-moralizing attitude, which should be kept apart from moralizing toleration (involving a great deal of moral judgement) and should be understood as the human disposition to put up with diversity. Tolerance thus defined is the basis for an alternative approach to cope with religious conflicts. Such an approach is less dependent on normative assumptions and more responsive to empirical data, including psychological insights as to the human ability to deal with difference.

Keywords: Tolerance, Toleration, Law, Religion, Conflicts, Accommodation, Respect, Rights, Consensus, Modus Vivendi, Europe, Constitutions