Berkley Center

Religious Freedom Project Associate Director Timothy Shah contributed a chapter to the volume, Religion and Innovation: Antagonists or Partners? edited by Donald A. Yerxa. Shah's chapter, "The First Enlightenment: The Patristic Roots of Religious Freedom," examines the contributions of early Christianity to the development of robust notions of religious freedom. This volume examines evidence surrounding common claims that intolerance is an intrinsic characteristic of Christianity's history, tracing arguments made by early Church leaders for universal religious freedom while investigating the context and precedent for this development.