The value and significance of religion in people's lives is a consistent theme throughout Nussbaum's work. In Cultivating Humanity (1997) she proposed that all humanities students should learn something about the major world religions. In Sex and Social Justice (1999) she balances the rights of women against religious freedom. Her ten capabilities include a commitment to the protection of free exercise of religion, under capabilities 6 (Practical Reason) and 7 (Affiliation). Nussbaum herself, born into a Protestant family, converted to Judaism when she married Alan Nussbaum, and after their divorce in 1987 continued to practise that faith, having her bat mitzvah in 2008. It is not, of course, a surprise that a liberal should take an interest in religious freedom. Liberalism has always entailed a strong commitment to religious tolerance. Indeed this is where the whole tradition of Western liberalism begins. As Russell Blackford puts it (citing Rex Ahdar and Ian Leigh in support), religious freedom ‘is the prototypical liberal freedom, a cornerstone of modern political rights’ (2012: 1). One of the foundational texts of liberalism is John Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration of 1689 (Locke: 2013), which argues that the practice of religion should not be under the control of the state but a matter for individual conscience. It is true that Locke entertains certain exceptions to his principle, doubting whether it should apply fully to Roman Catholics or Muslims, for reasons of state security. To a modern reader this strikes one as distinctly illiberal. It is an example of the kind of inconsistency (or hypocrisy) of which anti-liberals frequently accuse liberals. But one cannot really use Locke's inconsistency as a criticism of liberalism; rather, it suggests he was not being liberal enough. Liberals after him (and, in the case of Roger Williams, before him) have interpreted the principle of religious liberty more fairly and generously. Indeed, since Locke the idea of individual freedom has widened in liberal states to include non -religious beliefs and practices: freedom of expression of political dissent and of unpopular or controversial views, freedom to make experiments in living, freedom to pursue different forms of sexuality, and so on. Nevertheless, religious freedom, as well as being the foundation of all those other freedoms, is still a cornerstone of political rights and liberals are bound to take it seriously.