Philosophical Commentary on these Words of The Gospel Luke 14:23, "Compel Them to Come In That My House May Be Full'
by: Bayle, Pierre

Softcover. Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 639 pages. Christian apologists as early as St. Augustine have appealed to Christ's words in Luke 14:23-'Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled'- as a mandate for forcible conversion. In 1685, Protestant philosopher and critic Pierre Bayle wrote a compelling and thorough critique of this belief, contending that all coercion in religious matters is morally untenable as being inconsistent with reason. His Philosophical Commentary establishes the case against this supposed literal interpretation of Luke 14:23, arguing that reason must govern all interpretations of Scripture. According to Bayle, the erroneous conscience has the same rights as the enlightened one, his central tenet being a doctrine of mutual toleration grounded in a theory of the morality of conscience-namely, that all God requires is that people act on what seems to them to be the truth. Clean copy.