Religion and Discrimination: A Review Essay of <i>Persecution and Toleration: The Long Road to Religious Freedom</i>

Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama’s book, Persecution Toleration: The Long Road to Religious Freedom, examines the links between religion, state action, development of liberalism in medieval Europe. It discusses a model “conditional toleration”; how interaction religion influences persecution discrimination against minorities; religious freedom eventually paved way for scientific advances, liberalism, economic growth. tackles issues such as fiscal capacity, anti-Semitism Europe, plagues including Black Death, heresy Spanish Inquisition, witchcraft trials, Holocaust, climate shocks, growth cities with emergent minorities. these range countries providing rich historical detail interpretive depth its main argument. This is deeply evocative book that makes an important contribution new economics religion. Carefully researched thoughtfully crafted, themes it ideas raises have relevance not only European societies, which principally concerned, but also contemporary economies everywhere. (JEL D72, N13, N33, N43, Z12)