Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age

This 2002 collection of outstanding essays sheds new light on the paradox of the strictly Calvinist, yet tolerant, Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.

Dutch society has enjoyed a reputation, or notoriety, for permissiveness from the sixteenth century to present times. The Dutch Republic in the Golden Age was the only society that tolerated religious dissenters of all persuasions in early modern Europe, despite being committed to a strictly Calvinist public Church. Professors R. Po-chia Hsia and Henk van Nierop have brought together a group of leading historians from the US, the UK and the Netherlands to probe the history and myth of this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance. This 2002 collection of outstanding essays reconsiders and revises contemporary views of Dutch tolerance. Taken as a whole, the volume's innovative scholarship offers unexpected insights into this important topic in religious and cultural history.

1. Introduction R. Po-Chia Hsia; 2. 'Dutch' religious tolerance: celebration and revision Benjamin J. Kaplan; 3. Religious tolerance in the United Provinces: from 'case' to 'model' Willem Frijhoff; 4. The bond of Christian piety: the individual practice of tolerance in Golden Age Holland Judith Pollmann; 5. Religious policies in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic Joke Spaans; 6. Paying off the sheriff: strategies of Catholic toleration in Golden Age Holland Christine Kooi; 7. Sewing the bailiff in a blanket: Catholics and the law in Holland Henk van Nierop; 8. Anabaptism and tolerance: possibilities and limitations Samme Zijlstra; 9. Jews and religious toleration in the Dutch Republic Peter van Rooden; 10. Religious toleration and radical philosophy in the later Dutch Golden Age Jonathan Israel; 11. The politics of intolerance: citizenship and religion in the Dutch Republic (17th–18th centuries) Maarten Prak.

Hsia and van Nierop have brought together an international group of leading historians to probe the history and myth of Dutch religious toleration. This 2002 collection of outstanding essays sheds new light on the paradox of the strictly Calvinist, yet tolerant, Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.