A Recommendation of Tolerance

                I recently finished reading a book. To those of you who are now sarcastically applauding; shut up. Also, thank you.

The book in question is Tolerance by Hendrik Willem van Loon (pronounced “loan”). I was rummaging around a neat little bookstore a while ago when I came across an interesting looking book. It seemed very old. The pages were all staggered and uneven and there was nothing on the cover. I was intrigued. The binding of the book only read “Tolerance – van Loon”. I opened the book and saw that it was from 1925. I’m still not sure if it’s a first edition, but it’s definitely from one of the first four printings, but that’s all beside the point. With books that old there’s obviously no description or synopsis to get a grasp of what the writing might be about. So I started reading the prologue. This is what I read:

“Happily lived Mankind in the peaceful Valley of Ignorance. To the north, to the south, to the west and to the east stretched the ridges of the Hills Everlasting. A little stream of Knowledge trickled slowly through a deep worn gully. It came out of the Mountains of the Past. It lost itself in the Marshes of the Future. It was not much as rivers go. But it was enough for the humble needs of the villagers…

The Old Men Who Knew were brought forth from the shady corners where they had spent their day, pondering over the mysterious pages of an old book. They mumbled strange words to their grandchildren, who would have preferred to play with the pretty pebbles, brought down from distant lands. Often these words were not very clear. But they were writ a thousand years ago by a forgotten race. Hence they were holy. For in the Valley of Ignorance, whatever was old was venerable. And those who dared to gainsay the wisdom of the fathers were shunned by all decent people…"

Woah. Cool. I purchased the book immediately and spent the next couple days trying to learn what I could about Hendrik van Loon. There’s not a whole lot of information on him in the internet realm though. All I could find out for sure was that he was a journalist and an historian. He was born in the Netherlands and eventually moved to America. Apparently he was a prolific author of sorts, but for Tolerance specifically I could find no information at all. But I read the thing just the same.

Despite the feel of the prologue the book is in fact a historical look at religious tolerance (or intolerance, as it were) throughout history, with a specific focus on Europe. The book starts in ancient Greece and shows the religious freedom that seemed to flourish with those cultures. Then, of course, darker times set in and the rest of the book seems to show how scared people were and how quickly they would sell each other out and torture each other simply because they didn’t pray the correct way. They truly were frightening times. But through it all there is a hint of optimism. Loon tells the stories of different rebels and religious free thinkers throughout Europe’s history who stood defiantly against religious intolerance.  Although most were exiled or killed, their works and philosophies were carried on and would always seem to find a revival long after their deaths and would often help to usher in new eras of tolerance and acceptance, if only briefly.

Van Loon also tries to touch on as many philosophical views from as many free-thinkers in each passing era in Europe’s history as he can. He gives interesting, albeit small, glimpses into what the minorities were thinking and how they managed to retain those views despite threats of prohibition, torture, death and extermination.

The book ends with van Loon saying that tolerance is something that will most likely take thousands and thousands of years for humanity to come to terms with. (Also, I’m not sure if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that the book was published in 1925, considering what was on the horizon for religious intolerance in Europe. But I’m sure van Loon wrote extensively on those events as they were to occur.) 

All in all it really is a tremendous read that I could never do justice in a small review like this. I would highly recommend it to anyone, religious or not. It’s a very important look as to where intolerance comes from and, when in the wrong hands and wrong minds, what it can be capable of making us silly little humans do.