Religious Freedom in the Baptist Vision and in Fethullah Gülen: Resources for Muslims and Christians Paul Weller ABSTRACT H ow religions relate to religious plurality is critical for the peace and stability of states and societies in the 21 st century world. To engage positively with the challenges and opportunities of such a world, religious people need to draw not only on secular rhetoric and values concerning “toleration” and “human rights”, but also resources rooted in the theological “grammar” and integrity of their own traditions. Fethullah Gülen’s vision is one of a tajdid in which Muslims are called to live according to the authentic spirit of Islam. It is not a “modernist” or “liberal” project that can be is dismissed as a betrayal by Muslims who advocate the creation of theocratic polities. Rather, based on his knowledge of the sources of Islam, and of Muslim history, Gülen (in Ünal, A. and Williams, A. eds., 2000), argues: “Politicizing religion would be more dangerous for religion than for the regime, for such people want to make politics a means for all their ends. Religion would grow dark within them, and they would say: ‘We are the repre- sentatives of religion.’ This is a dangerous matter. Religion is the name of the relationship between humanity and God, which everyone can respect.” This approach resonates with the early Baptist Christian, Thomas Helwys (1612) who, in the 17 th century argued: “….men’s