I begin by narrowing down the realm of human ‘production’, the requirements it places on our faculties and why humans are essentially productive animals. I then move on to three philosophical accounts of human productivity: those of Aristotle, Marx and Gwen Bradford respectively. Aristotle’s account is marred by class prejudice, Marx’s by a hyper-focus on the conditions rather than the results of ‘labour’, and Bradford’s by an over-formal analysis of production that has too little to say about products. By contrast, I propose a comprehensive account that has substantive things to say about producers, processes of production and products. My account distinguishes two productive ‘poles’, namely: (1) those powers engaged in the producer (productive ‘inputs’); and (2) those powers engaged in the consumer (productive ‘outputs’). Production is good overall to the degree it protects and promotes the perfection of both producers’ and consumers’ powers. I round off Chapter 9 by tackling the ‘anti-work’ critique, arguing that it fails to show work as such is a bad. Indeed, production remains perfective of humans in virtue of their productive nature.

Chapter 5 discusses the trial of the Camisard prophet Elie Marion in 1707 in light of contemporary cases of blasphemy and sedition to consider how enthusiasm challenged the limits of religious tolerance in eighteenth-century England. If Trinitarian Protestants could no longer be prosecuted after the Toleration Act in 1689, how should enthusiasts be dealt with? This chapter not only argues that enthusiasm was no longer perceived as a threat to the state, but also that national identity played a significant part in the Camisard’s trial. It was in fact Huguenot refugees aspiring to be naturalised at a time when Britishness was being defined who brought the Camisards to court as proof of their allegiance to the Crown. Despite its lenient sentence, this trial became one of the most important cases of the eighteenth century.

Chapter 4 explores the debate around enthusiasm in late Stuart England. After looking at the French Prophets’ millenarian assemblies, during which they performed Biblical allegories and miracles, it considers how enthusiasts and dissenters took advantage of the lapsing of the Licensing Act in 1695 to promote their beliefs. With their claims to divine inspirations and insight into the future, the French Prophets sparked a spectacular battle of pamphlets of at least 150 extant titles in just three years. This controversy contributed to the early Enlightenment debate on the nature of enthusiasm. It shows how beliefs in witchcraft and demonic possessions persisted beyond 1700 and how satire became a weapon against enthusiasts in general. The case of the French Prophets would later serve as a precedent against the Methodists in the mid eighteenth century.

This chapter examines the formation, spread, social composition and inner workings of the French Prophets as a movement. Based on extensive prosopographical research, it argues that the Camisards did not appeal to isolated individuals, but rather to pre-existing networks of diplomats, merchants, lawyers, ministers, physicians and intellectuals. It demonstrates on this basis how the Camisards capitalised on a vibrant millenarian culture upon their arrival and that beliefs in prophecy and miracles survived among all levels of the social ladder well beyond 1700. This new insight into the religious landscape of early eighteenth-century England suggests that enthusiasm transcended religious and social boundaries and therefore that it ought to be distinguished from both radical dissent and what historians call ‘popular religion’.

Chapter 6 explores the medical debate on the nature and causes of religious enthusiasm that emerged with the scientific revolution. As Anglican ministers and divines increasingly resorted to a medical terminology to describe the physical manifestations of enthusiasm over the seventeenth century, physicians only began to address this issue around 1700 with the emergence of a ‘trade in lunacy’. This chapter therefore analyses the medicalisation of enthusiasm into a religious madness in the first half of the eighteenth century. It argues that the French Prophets stood at the heart of this debate, not only because of their bodily agitations, but also because of the presence of physicians among their followers. It demonstrates overall that madness was understood as a disease of the body, rather than one of the mind.

Chapter 3 explores the French Prophets’ system of beliefs against the backdrop of contemporary denominations in an attempt to understand their spiritual appeal to an English audience. It explores England’s long millenarian tradition before the Camisards found refuge in London. Their emphasis on religious experience (spirit possession, prophecy, gift of tongues, miracles, dreams and visions) over doctrinal boundaries enabled the French Prophets, and enthusiasts more generally, to appeal to all denominations alike. Their ecumenical ambition to reconcile Judaeo-Christian denominations into a Universal Church has been misunderstood as a form of sectarianism. This chapter argues on the contrary, that enthusiasm, as a religious experience, was ecumenical and irenic, that is the opposite of religious dissent.