Conversion and Inclusiveness

Abstract

Is the current notion of religious freedom compatible with the current notion of tolerance? In this paper I will try to prove that this problem exists and that the setting given by Baroncelli to the problem of tolerance, i.e. by way of the revaluation of the virtue of indifference, is the only way to set it correctly. I try to prove this thesis through the analysis of the notion of conversion elaborated by William James in his classic The Varieties of Religious Experience and especially of his notion of ‘being reborn’.

Keywords

• religious freedom
• tolerance
• Baroncelli
• James