If all religions are designed to be a system of spreading dogmatic practices, then how can there be true freedom, true free will to believe in one religion over another ? Dr. Ronald Schechter of the College of William and Mary, editor and translator of Nathan the Wise, wrote an introduction to the book in which he explains how Lessing “used the plurality of religious faiths to plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of believers.” . readers on the superiority of Christianity” (Schechter 12), which is one of the main reasons why this book was so contested in Germany. The concept of religious equality was important to Lessing, so he created his characters to be religiously diverse and respectful of other religious cultures. Schechter compares Lessing's work to that of other Enlightenment writers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire, who according to Lessing preached the equality of religions, but when it came to their writings, practiced another claim. Although he shared their ideals that religions should be written as equal, Lessing went a step further and, writing about Nathan the Wise, actually invited “readers to doubt the superiority of their religion, [and] showed much more respect for all three religions. religions than what Enlightenment writers typically did” (14). He exemplifies this respect through the characters of the humble friar, Saladin, Sittah,