Patience with the Erring: “Tolerance” as a Strategy of Conversion in Late Antique Christianity

Łukasz Koszałka

doi:10.26142/stgd-2026-001

Published: 2026-07-18

Vol. 58 (2026)

Patience with the Erring: “Tolerance” as a Strategy of Conversion in Late Antique Christianity

Łukasz Koszałka

Gdańsk Studies

Section: Artykuły

https://doi.org/10.26142/stgd-2026-001

Abstract

The article examines patientia toward heretics as a pastoral strategy in late antique Christianity through two case studies: Irenaeus of Lyons and Augustine of Hippo. The analysis begins by distinguishing the modern concept of tolerance from the ancient vocabulary of patient endurance (makrothymia, anoche, patientia). Irenaeus presents patience toward the erring as a pastoral method oriented toward conversion, paradigmatically instantiated in the practice of Polycarp of Smyrna. Augustine, a former Manichaean hearer, initially frames patientia as a moral obligation rooted in the memory of his own conversion; in his later writings on the Donatist controversy he evolves toward the concept of moderata coercitio, justified by a theology of grace. The comparison of both models reveals a shared goal of conversion alongside fundamentally divergent understandings of permissible means, and exposes the risk of instrumentalisation inherent in the pastoral argument and evident in its subsequent reception.

Keywords:

patientia, heresy, Irenaeus of Lyons, Augustine of Hippo, conversion

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Koszałka, Łukasz. (2026). Patience with the Erring: “Tolerance” as a Strategy of Conversion in Late Antique Christianity. Gdańsk Studies, 58, 6–18. https://doi.org/10.26142/stgd-2026-001

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