Religious Literacy Resource Guide: Defining and Measuring Religious Tolerance
Textual Resources
Religion, Intolerance, and Conflict by ISBN: 9780199640911Publication Date: 2013-06-10The relationship between religion, intolerance and conflict has been the subject of intense discussion, particularly in the wake of the events of 9-11 and the ongoing threat of terrorism. This book contains original papers written by some of the world's leading scholars in anthropology,psychology, philosophy, and theology exploring the scientific and conceptual dimensions of religion and human conflict. Authors investigate the following themes: the role of religion in promoting social cohesion and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; the role of religion in enabling and exacerbating conflict between different social groups and the conditions under which it will tend to do so; and thepolicy responses that we may be able to develop to ameliorate violent conflict and the limits to compromise between different religions. The book also contains two commentaries that distill, synthesize and critically evaluate key aspects of the individual chapters and central themes that runthroughout the volume. The volume will be of great interest to all readers interested in the phenomenon of religious conflict and to academics across a variety of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, psychology, theology, cognitive science, anthropology, politics, international relations, and evolutionarybiology.
More Journal Articles
- Ferrar, Jane. “The Dimensions of Tolerance.” The Pacific Sociological Review 19.1 (1976): 63-81.
Though tolerance is often treated as a unidimensional concept, there are at least three components of tolerance: extent of approval, extent of permission, and origins of belief. This paper explains why these dimensions should be examined separately, rather than fused together as they are in much of the tolerance literature.
- Francis, L. J., & Kay, W. K. "Attitude Towards Religion: Definition, Measurement and Evaluation." British Journal of Educational Studies 32.1 (1984): 45–50.
This paper reexamines the issues introduced in Greer's "Attitude Toward Religion Reconsidered"—definition, measurement, and evaluation of attitudes toward religion—in order to come to more positive conclusions about religious attitudes and attitudes towards religion.
Journal Articles
- Gibson, J. L., & Bingham, R. D. “On the Conceptualization and Measurement of Political Tolerance." The American Political Science Review 76.3 (1982): 603–620.
This article presents a new approach to measuring political tolerance, with scales measuring support for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of political association, in hopes that they will serve as better predictors of opinions and behaviors in actual disputes.
- Gibson, J. L. “Alternative Measures of Political Tolerance: Must Tolerance be "Least-Liked"?" American Journal of Political Science 36.2 (1992): 560–577.
This article considers how to measure political intolerance. The traditional Stouffer-based measure of intolerance is compared to the Sullivan, Piereson, and Marcus "least-liked" measure using data from a national survey. The traditional predictors of intolerance perform very similarly irrespective of which of the tolerance measures is used. Future tolerance research can profitably utilize either measurement approach.
- Newman, Jay. “The Idea of Religious Tolerance.” American Philosophical Quarterly 15.3 (1978): 187-195.
There are many obstacles to religious tolerance, but we often overlook the most basic obstacle: few people have a clear idea of what religious tolerance is. This essay illuminates the nebulous concept of religious tolerance in depth in hopes that reason will inform the good will of people hoping to practice tolerance.
- "Prospects for Inter-Religious Understanding." Pew Research Center, 2006.
This analysis suggests that the tensions that once existed between Protestants and Catholics, and the hostility that Jews faced from both groups, have largely diminished in America. These findings strongly suggest that the United States has the capacity to overcome historical religious divisions and prejudices.