Review article
THE RELIGIOUS CONCEPT OF TOLERANCE IN THE PATRISTIC AGE
Tomislav Zdenko Tenšek
; Catholic Theological Faculty, Zagreb
Abstract
The discourse on tolerance in the patristic age should be observed
within the breakthrough of Christianity into the Greco-
Roman world, which had been religiouslymarked by polytheism.
ln the first three centuries Christianity was persecuted because it
decisively rejected religious adoration of the emperor. Generally
speaking, it was an age in which the state displayed a lack of tolerance
for the Christians. During the Constantine turning-point,
when the Church was given religious freedom, although the
Church demonstrated evangelical tolerance, the Christians themselves
adopted intolerant attitudes towards paganism. Some ecclesiastical
writers, amongst which stands the well-known authority,
Augustine, have with their sometimes awkward interpretations
of the Gospel, laid the foundation for the theoretical justification of
force in issues of accepting faith and of repression towards religious
enemies. Although the Church always maintained that the
acceptance of faith remained a matter of the individual free will,
according to the principle of Thomas Aquinas Credere est voIuntatis
(Faith is a matter of free will), intolerant attitudes continued
into the Middle Ages through the crusades, the Inquisition and the
persecution of witches.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
32149
URI
Publication date:
1.3.1996.
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