A Letter Concerning Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration

Title page of the first edition.
Author	John Locke
Original title	Epistola de tolerantia
Subject	Liberalism, Religion
Published	1689

Part of a series on
John Locke
Social contract Limited government Tabula rasa State of nature Right to property Labor theory of property Lockean proviso Argument from consciousness
Works (listed chronologically)
Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina A Letter Concerning Toleration Two Treatises of Government An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Some Thoughts Concerning Education Of the Conduct of the Understanding
People
Robert Filmer Thomas Hobbes 1st Earl of Shaftesbury David Hume Jean-Jacques Rousseau Adam Smith Immanuel Kant Thomas Jefferson
Related topics
Empiricism Classical liberalism Polish Brethren
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A Letter Concerning Toleration (Epistola de tolerantia) by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, and it was immediately translated into other languages. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. This "letter" is addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir": this was Locke's close friend Philipp van Limborch, who published it without Locke's knowledge.^[1]