Joseph Loconte

Joseph Loconte, PhD, is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Grove City College and a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He also serves as a Senior Fellow in Christianity and Culture at The King’s College in New York City. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (Harper Collins, 2015) and winner of the 2017 Best Article award from the Tolkien Society for his article How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front.

Mr. Loconte previously served as the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and was a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Loconte’s other books include: God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West (Lexington Books, 2014); The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt (Thomas Nelson, 2012); The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler’s Gathering Storm (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004); and Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services (The Pioneer Institute, 1997).

Read more about Dr. Loconte >>

"Many have written about Erasmus and religion. God, Locke, and Liberty is as good a statement as we are likely to get for Erasmus as the great inspiration of Locke’s thinking about religious liberty."

— Ian C. Harris, University of Leicester

"John Locke considered toleration ‘to be the chief characteristic mark of the true church.’ This book helps us to see Locke as he saw himself—a religious reformer in the tradition of Erasmus, calling his fellow believers to stop persecuting and start imitating ‘the perfect example of the Prince of Peace.’ There is much more to be said about Locke and toleration, but Loconte shows how the ethos of Christian humanism was used to tame post-Reformation religion, paving the way for the ameliorated Christianity of the Enlightenment."

— John Coffey, University of Leicester

"Loconte reconstructs the meaning of Locke’s ideas on religious toleration with exceptional clarity, erudition, and a dynamic, engaging style. He has the rare ability to make seventeenth century writings seem urgently relevant, without ever wrenching them out of their specific historical contexts."

— Ian McBride, King’s College London

"This is one of those rare books that scholars and ordinary lovers of history alike will profit from. And it comes not a moment too soon. In a world where the foundations of freedom are buckling under the weight of both religious and secular fanaticisms, this book cannot find too wide a readership."

— Greg Forster, Kern Family Foundation