ABSTRACT
In its broadest sense, toleration allows a variety of relationships towards instances of religious diversity. In this chapter, I explain both the coherence and virtue of neutrality (as a form of indifference) as the preferred form of state toleration. Those, such as multiculturalists, who argue for the alternative of state for respect for difference commonly argue that neutrality is not capable of accommodating a wide variety of ways of life. Here I reject this claim. Neutrality is an unrealisable yet still action-guiding political ideal. It only makes sense in relation to a particular range of things (people’s ways of life), and needs to be sensitive to the changing nature of this range. But this difference-sensitivity can be realised by either withdrawing support for all parties or actively assisting them. I argue for the former: state neutrality, as active indifference, which should ideally involve withdrawing support for favoured ways of life rather than actively recognising the various ways of life of its citizens.
