Spectacle of Toleration Conference "No person shall bee any wise molested"

No person shall bee any wise molested: Religious Freedom,

Cultural Conflict, and the Moral Role of the State 

The Spectacle of Toleration conference No person shall bee any wise molested: Religious freedom, cultural conflict, and the moral role of the state, which marks the 350th anniversary of the 1663 Rhode Island Charter will take place October 3-6, 2013 at Salve Regina University and Brown University.

“This conference provides a timely point of entry into a thoughtful consideration of a far larger set of questions about religious freedom in particular historical and present day contexts,” explains the Newport Historical Society’s Executive Director Ruth Taylor, who developed the Spectacle project and initiated this academic conference. “Situated in historic Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, the conference looks at the sources, consequences, changing meanings, and lived experiences of religious freedom and intolerance.”

No person shall bee any wise molested features academic panel presentations including 40 paper presentations on topics ranging from politics/law, toleration within history, toleration in modern times, and toleration and freedom within the context of various religions. Presentations will include:

• “How special was Rhode Island? The Global Context of the 1663 Charter” by Evan Haefeli of Columbia University.
• “The Cult Scare and the Shifting Politics of American Religious Freedom, 1975-1985” by Tisa Wenger of Yale University.
• “A Free Market for Religion? Toleration, Disestablishment and the ‘Naturalness’ of Religious Pluralism” by Paul Firenze of Providence College.

Conference organizers have arranged an all-star line-up of keynote presentations, which are free to the public. 

• Thursday October 3, 2013 at 7pm: Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence and Director, Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values at the University of Chicago will present the opening remarks at Salve Regina University's Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Professor Leiter is the author of Why Tolerate Religion? (Princeton University Press 2013). He is the Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values. He teaches and writes primarily in the areas of moral, political, and legal philosophy, in both Anglophone and Continental traditions. The presentation will be about the nature of tolerance and about legal protections of religion. Registration is required for this free lecture. To register visit: https://brianleiter.eventbrite.com.
• Saturday October 5, 2013 from 7pm-9pm: Panel Discussion. The panel consists of Morgan Grefe, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Maura Jane Farrelly from Brandeis University, and Stephen Marini from Wellesley College. This program takes place at the Manning Chapel at Brown University. Registration is required for this free lecture. To register visit: https://spectacleclosingkeynote.eventbrite.com.

 The conference is open to the public. It costs $75 for one day or $150 to attend all three days. For more conference details, or to register, visit: http://www.spectacleoftoleration.org/. The Spectacle of Toleration: Learning from the Lively Experiment is a collaborative project between the Newport Historical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, John Carter Brown Library, George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, Salve Regina University and Brown University. It is supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.