The Case for Tolerance as a European Value

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Renáta Uitz is professor of law and government at the Royal Holloway Law School, University of London, and senior research fellow at the Democracy Institute of Central European University (CEU), Budapest. This post formed part of a keynote address a conference on “FORB and the European Union” sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Freedom of Religion or Belief (ISFORB) at the Evangelical Theological Faculty (ETF Leuven), 7–8 May 2026. It is also based on a presentation at the “Religious Freedom, Flourishing Societies, and the Role of Law” workshop sponsored by the ICLRS at Christ Church, University of Oxford, 27–28 July 2026. Research for this post was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation though the CEU project Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East-Central Europe.

The minimum conditions of belonging to the European Union (EU) were recently spelled out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the values judgment (Case C-769/22, European Commission v. Hungary (21 April 2026)). Responding to the rule of law crisis, CJEU case law to date has focused on values set out expressly in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) such as the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights. Other contenders for EU values emerging on the heels of the migration crisis include solidarity in the face of religious diversity (based on TEU Article 2) and animal welfare as a rationale for limitations on ritual slaughter (based on Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and Article 37 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EUCFR)). Christianity (as the defining feature of European culture) is also a prominent contender, with discussions focusing on the EU’s role in protecting Christianity, Christian values, and Christian civilization.

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Can’t We Just Be Civil? Jean-Jacques Rousseau and a Hellish Limit to Toleration

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Greg Marcar is a research affiliate at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI), University of Otago (New Zealand), where he is also a teaching fellow within the Theology program. This post is based in part on his chapter “Doubtful Civil Belief: Or, Tolerating One’s Damned Neighbours with Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” in Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law: International Perspectives (Routledge 2023).

Introduction

It has become clichéd—though no less accurate—to point out that we live in divisive times, with disparate societal groups becoming increasingly intolerant toward one another. In a 2016 interview, American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt postulates that the level of socio-political civility society within countries such as the United States has reached its lowest point since the nineteenth century.[1] This is not to claim that the depth of current social malaise is unprecedented. As Teresa Bejan (whose work is discussed below) notes, the conceptual ancestry of “toleration” discourse itself may be traced to a much more fractious point in history: namely, fifteenth-century Europe.[2] This caveat notwithstanding, it seems an apropos time to revisit an old political and philosophical issue: how should society and the State approach the issue of diversity in peoples’ fundamental beliefs? This is important because the identitarian flavor of today’s incivility/intolerance perhaps more closely resembles the religious dissension of the fifteenth century than we like to admit.

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Why Religious Freedom Matters to Me: The 2022 Religious Freedom Annual Review

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The 2022 Religious Freedom Annual Review, held on 16 June at Brigham Young University, focused on the theme “Living Peaceably: Religious Freedom as a Foundation for Religious Harmony.”

Panelists in the opening plenary session shared personal reflections on “Why Religious Freedom Matters to Me.” Edited summaries of their presentations are available below; links to videos of the opening session and other sessions are available here.

Reverend Marian Edmonds-Allen presenting on the importance of religious freedom for all

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