Jonas Proast: “Thorns and Briars” on Locke's Way Towards Toleration

Abstract

This text offers an introductory article and a translation of the response of the Anglican priest Jonas Proast to the English edition of John Locke's “Letter on Toleration.” Proast's texts have not previously been translated into Russian, although their influence both on Locke's later political texts and on contemporary interpretations of Lockean justification for toleration is widely recognized and discussed. Locke's second, third and fourth (unfinished due to death) letters on toleration were written as responses to Proast, clarifying different aspects that had remained unclear in the first letter. Proast makes a decisive attack on the claim that an external force cannot induce a sincere belief in the truth, and is therefore not justified for the purpose of salvation (the so-called “argument from belief” of Locke). In Proast's view, neither the absence of direct subordination of reason to will, nor the understanding of the duties of magistrate on the basis of the natural interests of his subjects abolish the magistrate's authority to the reasonable use of outward force in defense of religious truth — on the contrary, this use is necessary for the fundamental interest of every person in salvation. Readers are offered a translation of the first text written by Proast in the polemic, as well as an introductory article covering the polemic as a whole, specifically focusing on how the argument from belief appears in the light of the polemic and what clarifications may be needed. At the same time, the author emphasizes that the status of this argument is far from the only, and perhaps even the most important, interesting or relevant stake in the Locke-Proast controversy.