Berkley Center

Carried out by the Religious Freedom Project in partnership with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, this sourcebook presents primary documents surveying historical and contemporary Christian approaches to religious freedom. These documents, spanning the seventh century to the present, include scriptural texts, official religious texts, theological and philosophical texts, and legal and political texts.

An introduction and commentary by Professor David Little contextualizes the ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern periods of Christian history. Professor Little draws attention to key historical and contemporary issues which feature in the primary sources, including early Christian ambivalence towards their Roman persecutors, medieval philosophy and the origins of the conciliar challenge to papal supremacy, and Christian approaches to the religious freedom of non-Christians and divided sects of Christianity. Little argues that Christianity, while not exclusively favoring robust conceptions of religious freedom, contributed much to their intellectual development and present force.