Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A note on references
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND TO HOBBES'S PHILOSOPHY
- PART II LAW, MORALITY, AND GOD
- PART III RELIGION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE AND POLITICS
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Curley on Hobbes
- Appendix B Skinner on Hobbes
- Appendix C The frontispiece to Leviathan
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A note on references
- Dedication
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND TO HOBBES'S PHILOSOPHY
- PART II LAW, MORALITY, AND GOD
- PART III RELIGION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE AND POLITICS
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Curley on Hobbes
- Appendix B Skinner on Hobbes
- Appendix C The frontispiece to Leviathan
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
HOBBES'S CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS PROJECTS
Hobbes's theism
In his own day, Thomas Hobbes was accused of atheism and general wickedness. The twentieth century has been much kinder to him in some ways, and the consensus of scholarly opinion now counts him as a tepid theist. My view, in contrast, is that Hobbes was a sincere, and relatively orthodox, Christian. Not only did he believe that God exists and that religion is an important part of human life; he believed that God in some mysterious way has made revelations to various people, believed that Jesus was both God and the Messiah, and believed that there would be a heaven and hell at the end of this world. It is possible that he did not have a strong emotional commitment to religion. He may not have had a strong attachment to the rituals of any denomination, although he went out of his way to worship according to the liturgy of the Church of England (Stephen and Leslie, 1917, 9:936). But he certainly had a strong intellectual commitment to religion. More specifically, he had a strong commitment to the Calvinist Christianity of Jacobean England. I shall be arguing that theological concepts, especially those of English Calvinism, are an inextricable part of his philosophy, especially his moral and political views. Thus, the correct understanding of Hobbes's philosophy must include an explanation of the role of characteristically Christian concepts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Two Gods of LeviathanThomas Hobbes on Religion and Politics, pp. 1 - 16Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992