The State, Toleration, and Religious Freedom

Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama
Additional contact information
Noel Johnson: George Mason University

Chapter Chapter 24 in Advances in the Economics of Religion, 2019, pp 377-403 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter offers a novel account of the rise of religious freedom. Religious and political power have been bound together since prehistory. As a consequence, there was an absence of religious freedom throughout most of history. Even when religious dissidents were not being persecuted for their beliefs, religious practice was not free. We investigate the motivations that led some states to persecute individuals for their religious beliefs and other states to abstain from persecution. We argue that the rise of modern states—states capable of enforcing general rules and the rule of law—made possible religious peace and the eventual rise of religious and other liberal freedoms.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:intecp:978-3-319-98848-1_24

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783319988481

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-98848-1_24

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in International Economic Association Series from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().