Abstract

Kilcullen argues that Pierre Bayle's Philosophical Commentary on the Words of the Gospel: 'Compel Them to Enter In' presents the best case extant for religious toleration. The first two essays analyze the Commentary in a seventeenth-century theological context; the final three essays examine related current philosophical themes in the works of, among others, Feinberg, Peirce, and Rawls. While the author admits that his essays--focused on the dilemmas arising out of epistemological uncertainty--may be too wide-ranging for some readers, this work, with over six hundred detailed footnotes, presents the finest available exegesis of the Commentary.