RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND SOCIAL-ORDER - TOLE RANCE AS A PROBLEM OF POLITICAL-THEORY IN THE LATE 17TH-CENTURY

This study aims at analysing the fundamental arguments for religious i ntolerance in the political theories of the Reformation and of the con fessional state. It further studies those terms and categories, which were used to bring these theories into line both with the general idea of the autonomy of belief and the pluralism of confessions existing i n reality. Only when in the late 17th century politics strictly follow ed the concept of the ''christian state'' (e.g. with the repeal of the Edict of Nantes 1685) a fundamental opposition emerged against these theories of intolerance. This opposition had to find a functional equi valent for religion as a fundament for the norms of the social and pol itical order and their realization. Conring and Pufendorf, Locke, Bayl e and Spinoza developed different models all aiming at solving this pr oblem. These models are analysed in a comparative manner. Each of thei r conclusions had theoretical prerequisites, which lost their plausibi lity during the development of modernity.