This book has been in the works for a long time, and it releases this month:

D. A. Carson. The Intolerance of Tolerance. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. 186 pp.

It’s outstanding. I read it several times last year and enjoyed preparing the indexes.

• 30-page PDF. This includes the book’s front matter and first 25 pages.
• MP3s: part 1 | part 2. Don Carson has spoken on the intolerance of tolerance many times, often while evangelizing at secular universities. These two MP3s are from March 2004.

Here’s the book’s broad outline:

Ch. 1. Introduction: The Changing Face of Tolerance

1. The Old Tolerance and the New
2. Sharpening the Contrast between the Old Tolerance and the New

Ch. 2. What Is Going On?

1. Miscellaneous Examples
2. The Domain of Education
3. The Domain of the Media
4. The Domain of Homosexual Behavior
5. Target: Christianity

Ch. 3. Jottings on the History of Tolerance

1. Initial Comments to Orient the Discussion
2. Early Christian Thought
3. The Intolerant Road to Tolerance in the Modern Period
4. Notes on the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
5. More Recent Developments
6. Concluding Reflections

Ch. 4. Worse Than Inconsistency

1. On Claiming the Moral High Ground for “Tolerance”
2. On the Impact of Secularization
3. On Other Agendas

Ch. 5. The Church and Christian Truth Claims

1. The Challenges
1. The Charge of Intolerance
2. Inside the Church
3. The Subtle Pressure to Dumb Down, Dilute, and Minimize the Gospel
2. Aspects of Christian Truth Claims
1. Truth Grounded in Revelation
2. Truth Tied to Early Christian History
3. Truth Addressing Sin and Redemption
4. Truth and Love
5. Truth and Evangelism
3. Truth and Tolerance: Concluding Reflections
1. Religion without truth
2. “Tolerance” without convictions
3. Tolerance without religious liberty
4. Truth without the cross

Ch. 6. And Still There Is Evil

1. Morality and Truth
2. Morality and Relativism
3. Morality and Tolerance
4. And Still There Is Evil

Ch. 7. Tolerance, Democracy, and Majoritarianism

1. Understanding the Problem
2. Christianity, and Some Other Religious Faiths, Can Never Be Purely Private
3. Majoritarianism and Democracy
4. So What Do These Reflections Say about Tolerance and Intolerance?

Ch. 8. Ways Ahead: Ten Words

1. Expose the New Tolerance’s Moral and Epistemological Bankruptcy
2. Preserve a Place for Truth
3. Expose the New Tolerance’s Condescending Arrogance
4. Insist That the New Tolerance Is Not “Progress”
5. Distinguish between Empirical Diversity and the Inherent Goodness of All Diversity
6. Challenge Secularism’s Ostensible Neutrality and Superiority
7. Practice and Encourage Civility
8. Evangelize
9. Be Prepared to Suffer
10. Delight in and Trust God