Anticlerical Legacies: The Deistic Reception of Thomas Hobbes, c. 1670–1740(Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain)

Anticlerical legacies explores the reception of Thomas Hobbes's political and religious ideas by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century deists and freethinkers, such as Charles Blount, John Toland, Anthony Collins, Matthew Tindal, Thomas Morgan, and many others. It shows that these writers were indebted to various aspects of Hobbes's thought, that they engaged with his ideas explicitly in their published and unpublished works, and that they invoked his authority consistently despite the explosive reputation of the 'monster of Malmesbury'. Hobbes emerges from this study as a major source of anticlerical ideas and tools - something that his contemporary admirers and critics seemed to agree on but that has been understudied in the scholarship. The battle of Hobbes and his successors against the orthodoxy was also a battle for civil peace, and the rich anticlerical legacies that they left remained influential long after their lifetime.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 The early days of English deism (c. 1670–1695) 2 The deist controversy (1696–1710) 3 The age of freethinking (1711–1723) 4 The last battle (1724–1740) Conclusion

About the Author :
Elad Carmel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Jyvskyl and previously a Daiches-Manning Memorial Fellow in 18th-Century Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Review :
'A careful examination of Hobbes’s influence on early debates about Deism, the place of reason in religion, and the place of religion in society' J. H. Spence, Adrian College, CHOICE Reviews '[An] important and fluently crafted study... [which] relies on the perceptive analysis of abundant textual evidence within specific intellectual and political contexts' Heikki Haara, History of European Ideas 'Carmel’s valuable study contributes to the enriching of our understanding of the intellectual traditions which fostered the radical ideas of the Enlightenment in England.' Katherine A. East, Intellectual History Review 'In tracing out the Hobbesian roots of [Anthony] Collins’s manifesto, and the deist program on which it drew, Anticlerical Legacies succeeds magnificently. We are left with a greater appreciation of both Hobbes – whose profound and continuing legacy continued to unsettle public discourse well into the next century – and the deists for whom he served as such a powerful role model.' Andrew R. Murphy, Hobbes Studies 'A groundbreaking exploration of the reception of Hobbes's ideas among English deists and freethinkers. It’s a fascinating window into how Hobbes’s intellectual legacy evolved in a context often overshadowed by his more famous contributions to political theory.' Jerónimo Rilla, European Hobbes Society 'This volume is to be highly recommended not only to Hobbes specialists and students of deism, but also to all those interested in acquiring a better understanding of both the significance of Hobbes's legacy and the complexity and originality of English deism.' Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria), Journal of Ecclesiastical History