Medieval religious toleration in disputation texts was a strategic posture for Christian victory

Evidence

Yet the serene tone and apparent evenhandedness do not stand up to close scrutiny: they comprise, for Llull as for Theodore Abû Qurrah, a strategic posture for the defense of Christianity against its rivals. The four characters in the Libre del gentil all accept without question that only one of the three religions can lead to eternal bliss, that the adherents of the two erroneous religions are bound for hell. And while Llull never explicitly announces which religion the gentile chooses, the dialogue clearly indicates that it is Christianity. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1319

Categorization

• XREF: Sharpens the existing vault framing that apparently irenic interfaith encounter rhetoric masks an exclusionary hierarchy — echoes Aziz/Razack analyses of pluralism-as-containment.
• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism — equalized surface treatment (fair quotes, no caricature) resting on an unquestioned assumption that only one religion saves and rivals burn in hell — is a precise, portable template for analyzing liberal pluralism that tolerates while foreclosing.