A thirteenth-century text framed religious diversity itself as the cause of human enmity

Evidence

“Ah! What a great good fortune it would be if, by means of these trees, we could all—every man on earth—be under one religion and belief, so that there would be no more rancor or ill will among men, who hate each other because of diversity and contrariness of beliefs and of sects! And just as there is only one God, Father, Creator, and Lord of everything that exists, so all peoples could unite and become one people, and that people be on the path to salvation, under one faith and one religion, giving glory and praise to our Lord God.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1310

Categorization

• XREF: This speech imagines pluralism as the source of war and union under one faith as the cure — a striking early articulation of the monotheistic universalism/plurality-as-conflict frame picked up in the modern Islam-West opposition claims in the vault.