John Rawls's Theology of Liberal Toleration

Scholarship has shown that John Rawls's theological education at Princeton shaped his later theory of justice but has overlooked a similar impact on his account of toleration, which was also derived from the original position in A Theory of Justice. Drawing on a variety of published and unpublished works, I argue that in the account of toleration in A Theory of Justice the original position takes the place previously occupied by God in His roles as "father of all" and "just judge." Paying attention to the theological origins of Rawls's view of toleration in liberal Protestantism explains why he thought that the Western concept of the separation of church and state follows logically from the original position, even though his insistence on this point subjected his thought to internal inconsistency and external criticism. Acknowledging these limitations opens to liberal political theorists an avenue for increased institutional flexibility that Rawls prematurely closed.