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Eventually this political program of religious toleration collapsed with the new Enlightenment ideas of the individual or subject, which posited that every individual was separate and distinct from others, and of rights, or principles of autonomy. The concept of rights derives ultimately from Martin Luther's concept of Christian freedom, in which individuals are granted sole authority over their religious beliefs. It is but a small step from the idea of individual religious autonomy to the idea of individual autonomy in other areas as well. These ideas encouraged Enlightenment thinkers to revamp the notion of religious tolerance into a general social and political virtue; tolerance of variant religions should be extended to variant ideas (hence freedom of speech), variant philosophies, and variant cultures. Perhaps the most eloquent advocate of tolerance was Voltaire, whose treatise on tolerance argues that the worst horrors in history are a product of intolerance. Tolerance, I should stress, did not mean "acceptance" to the Enlightenment, it only meant that one would take no steps to coerce physically or otherwise other individuals into changing their beliefs, thoughts, or customs. One was still free to disapprove of those beliefs, thoughts, or customs. The project we're engaged with in this class—multiculturalism—is simply a latter day version of the Enlightenment doctrine of tolerance.
Richard Hooker
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