Czy tolerancja jest cnotą?

Abstract

Declaration of Principles on Tolerance was recently adopted and proclaimed by the UNESCO (16 November 1995). It states with emphasis that tolerance is today not only a valuable principle, but also a necessity for peace in the world. Tolerance is called „the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace”. The same was underlined in the introduction to the Declaration by the Director General of the UNESCO, Federico Mayor: „Tolerance is more than ever a virtue indispensable to peace-building”. The author of the article tries, as a theologian, to argue that tolerance can be considered a virtue not only in the secular sense, but also theologically. He shows first how deep and how largely wide-spread the fear of the other and of all otherness is. The fear of otherness marks also the history of Christianity. We have divided our ecclesiastical lives on the basis of difference, but difference easily becomes division. By turning difference and diversity into division we reinforce only the fear of the other. Communion with the other requires acceptance and tolerance. An open and tolerant identity is not, as the early history of Christianity shows, an easy task for the Church. A certain ethos of tolerance is necessary, of which the Apostle Paul gives a normative paradigm in his Letter to the Romans (Rm 14 to 15, 13). The Greek word bastddzein (Rm 15:1) is particularly significant in this respect. Tolerance is in fact mutual acceptance and respect: „accept one another as Christ accepted us, to the glory of God” (Rm 15:7). The paper deals also briefly with the question of tolerance and truth. One has to remember that our knowledge here on earth is only partial (cf. 1 Cor 13:9. 12). To be tolerant does not mean to be indifferent to the truth. Great culture of tolerance is shaped by people who are open to others, able to understand them and to have compassion for them, by people free of narrowness of mind and heart. What we need today is a sort of polyphonic sensitivity. Tolerance is harmony in diversity, a true virtue in a religious sense of the word.