Abstract: This thesis challenges the widely held liberal view that faith schools are necessarily a conflictual influence in contemporary society. In examining the conceptual resources that the Modern Orthodox Jewish (MOJ) faith school might bring to the formation of its pupils as tolerant citizens, the thesis draws on selected contexts and concepts of toleration from British thought in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century most notably that of John Locke, from the era of Enlightenment and Emancipation in seventeenth to nineteenth century Europe, and from contemporary ideas concerning aspects of toleration and citizenship central to the present day. The argument does not take for granted homogeneous and conventional conceptions of toleration, or indeed of intolerance. In paving a critical path, it offers fresh perspectives on religious autonomy and diversity from a philosophical, historical, theological, political and educational point of view. These ideas provide a significant contribution to issues of crucial current debate concerning religious toleration and citizenship in twenty-first century liberal democratic England. Finally the thesis suggests ways in which the MOJ faith school might educate its pupils to participate in, and contribute to, wider society as a community of tolerant practice, and offers ideas concerning the philosophical framework that might underpin this practice.
