Overview

This book explores the religious concerns of Enlightenment thinkers from Thomas Hobbes to Thomas Jefferson. Using an innovative method, the study illuminates the intellectual history of the age through interpretations of Jesus between c.1650 and c.1826. The book demonstrates the persistence of theology in modern philosophy and the projects of social reform and amelioration associated with the Enlightenment. At the core of many of these projects was a robust moral-theological realism, sometimes manifest in a natural law ethic, but always associated with Jesus and a commitment to the sovereign goodness of God. This ethical orientation in Enlightenment discourse is found in a range of different metaphysical and political identities (dualist and monist; progressive and radical) which intersect with earlier ‘heretical’ tendencies in Christian thought (Arianism, Pelagianism, and Marcionism). This intellectual matrix helped to produce the discourses of irenic toleration which are a legacyof the Enlightenment at its best.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Jonathan C. P. Birch
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
Edition:   1st ed. 2019
Weight:   0.796kg
ISBN:  

9781137512758

ISBN 10:   113751275
Pages:   493
Publication Date:   29 July 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction.- Chapter Two: Imagining Enlightenment – The Historical and Historiographical Context.- Chapter Three: Overture to a Moral Messiah - God, Goodness, and the Heretical Tendency.- Chapter Four:  Material Messiah - Hobbes, Heresy, and a Kingdom Not of This World.- Chapter Five: ‘No Spirit No God’ - From the Light of Christ to the Age of Enlightenment.- Chapter Six: What Would Jesus Tolerate? - Reason and Revelation in Spinoza, Locke, and Bayle.- Chapter Seven: The Unity of God and the Wisdom of Christ - The Religious Enlightenments of Joseph Priestley and Thomas Jefferson .- Chapter Eight: Postscript and Conclusion.

Reviews

Birch's invaluable, rigorous, and engaging book does much to further-it will be of vital interest to historians, theologians, and religious studies scholars of all levels, seeking to engage honestly with the complex, pluralistic nature of our collective intellectual history. (Jonathan Greenaway, Literature and Theology, February 7, 2021)

Author Information

Jonathan C P Birch teaches in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is an intellectual historian who specialises in biblical interpretation and Western philosophy.

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