洛克论宗教宽容

洛克的《论宗教宽容》,是现代西方处理宗教冲突的基本理论依据。但新近发现的文献表明,洛克早年是反对宗教宽容的。本文将洛克对宗教宽容的几次讨论放在十六十七世纪英国宗教冲突的政治背景之下,指出洛克前后期虽然主张不同,但都遵循同样的理论基础,即《第二篇政府短论》中提出的"神法—人法—兄弟法—私人法"的法律结构,只是针对英国现实问题,在这一框架当中适当调整。无论他主张宗教宽容还是不宽容,目的都是为了清除天主教在英国政治中的势力,围绕圣公会建立一个独立的民族国家。他晚年与普洛斯特有过多次争论,但所涉及的并不是原则性的分歧。我们今天思考宗教冲突与宽容问题,应该看到洛克宗教宽容思想的理论基础。

John Locke on Religious Toleration

The Epistola de Tolerantia by John Locke published in 1689 laid the theoretical foundation for religious toleration in modern western countries. The discovery of Locke's early papers, however, made this straightforward idea questionable, because Locke was against religious toleration in the 1660s. In this paper, I put Locke's different writings on toleration in the background of English religious conflicts and argue that:(1) The framework of laws offered in the "Second Tract on Government" plays as the basis of Locke's apparently different ideas about toleration, and (2) his toleration is never a general toleration, but a Protestant toleration aimed at excluding Roman Catholicism from English politics.