John Locke

“Locke breaks from the way Christian thinkers had treated these topics for centuries. In the classical Christian tradition, religion is not merely inward belief. It is a lived, embodied reality: sacramental, hierarchical, liturgical, and communal. And while politics should protect rights and prevent harms, it also has a pedagogical function.” - L&L

“Far from the author of rabid secularism or deconstructive individualism, Locke, influenced by Shaftesbury, was an agent of ordered liberty. He … articulated an alternative statecraft defending and expanding English freedoms in politics and religion.” - Providence

“What is really out there is not dependent upon how I feel about it or even how I perceive it, because I am not the author of truth; I am not the one who creates reality. I encounter reality.” - RC Sproul

“In the Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke stressed the magistrate’s incapacity to establish which is the true Christian faith, a position few would dispute. But his approach to toleration requires that we at least establish what religion is and what it isn’t, an equally difficult task.” - The Public Discourse