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Books by Diego Lucci

Cambridge University Press, 2021

John Locke's religious interests and concerns permeate his philosophical production and are best ... more John Locke's religious interests and concerns permeate his philosophical production and are best expressed in his later writings on religion, which represent the culmination of his studies. In this volume, Diego Lucci offers a thorough analysis and reassessment of Locke's unique, heterodox, internally coherent version of Protestant Christianity, which emerges from The Reasonableness of Christianity and other public as well as private texts. In order to clarify Locke's views on morality, salvation, and the afterlife, Lucci critically examines Locke's theistic ethics, biblical hermeneutics, reflection on natural and revealed law, mortalism, theory of personal identity, Christology, and tolerationism. While emphasizing the originality of Locke's scripture-based religion, this book calls attention to his influences and explores the reception of his unorthodox theological ideas. Moreover, the book highlights the impact of Locke's natural and biblical theology on other areas of his thought, thus enabling a better understanding of the unity of his work.

The stereotype of Casanova as a promiscuous and unscrupulous lover has been so pervasive that gen... more The stereotype of Casanova as a promiscuous and unscrupulous lover has been so pervasive that generations of historians have failed to take serious account of his philosophical legacy. This has recently changed, however, as the publication of the definitive edition of his memoirs and the majority of his longer treatises has heralded a surge of interest in the writer. This book constitutes an interpretive turn in Casanova studies in which the author is positioned as a highly perceptive and engaged observer of the Enlightenment. Drawing primarily on Casanova’s large body of manuscripts and lesser-known works, the contributors reveal a philosopher whose writings covered topics ranging from sensual pleasure to suicide. Analysing Casanova’s œuvre from the perspective of moral philosophy, contributors show how several of his works – including his historical writings and satirical essays on human folly – contribute to the Enlightenment quest for a secular morality. A major feature of this book is the first English annotated translation of Federico Di Trocchio’s seminal article ‘The philosophy of an adventurer’, which paved the way for a re-evaluation of Casanova as a serious philosopher. In subsequent chapters contributors uncover the Italian context of Casanova’s anticlericalism, analyse the sources of his views on suicide and explore the philosophical dialogues contained in his recently published manuscripts. Casanova: Enlightenment philosopher marks a turning point in literary and philosophical studies of the eighteenth century, and is an indispensable resource for analysing and interpreting the work of this previously overlooked Enlightenment thinker.

Papers by Diego Lucci

Academic Studies Press eBooks, Nov 28, 2019

Zygon, Feb 1, 2021

Locke's consciousness-based theory of personal identity resulted not only from his agnosticism on... more Locke's consciousness-based theory of personal identity resulted not only from his agnosticism on substance, but also from his biblical theology. This theory was intended to complement and sustain Locke's moral and theological commitments to a system of otherworldly rewards and sanctions as revealed in Scripture. Moreover, he inferred mortalist ideas from the Bible, rejecting the resurrection of the same body and maintaining that the soul dies at physical death and will be resurrected by divine miracle. Accordingly, personal identity is neither in the soul, nor in the body, nor in a union of soul and body. To Locke, personal identity is in consciousness, which, extending "backwards to any past Action or Thought," enables the self, both in this life and upon resurrection for the Last Judgment, to recognize that "it is the same self now it was then; and 'tis by the same self with this present one that now reflects on it, that that Action was done" (Essay II.xxvii.9).

Journal of Jesuit Studies, Apr 11, 2020

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 lice... more This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc-nd 4.0 license.

Journal of Early Modern Studies

After the publication of The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), several critics depicted Lock... more After the publication of The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), several critics depicted Locke as a follower of the anti-Trinitarian and anti-Calvinist theologian Faustus Socinus and his disciples, the Polish Brethren. The relation between Locke and Socinianism is still being debated. Locke’s religion indeed presents many similarities with the Socinians’ moralist soteriology, non-Trinitarian Christology, and mortalism. Nevertheless, Locke’s theological ideas diverge from Socinianism in various regards. Furthermore, there are significant differences between the Socinians’ and Locke’s views on the natural and revealed law. Socinian authors thought that Christ’s Gospel had superseded both the Law of Nature and the Mosaic Law. Therefore, they endeavored to follow the Christian imperative of non-violence and favored pacifism. Moreover, they maintained the divine origin of political authority and asserted absolute obedience to the magistrate, thereby rejecting the right to resistance ...

Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science, 2015

While the title of this book might give the impression that it is a 700-page tome on a peripheral... more While the title of this book might give the impression that it is a 700-page tome on a peripheral genre of late 17th-century English literature, the non-specialist readership of Reviews in History ought not to be misled. By 'histories of philosophy' Dmitri Levitin actually means neither simply writings titled as such, nor even simply writings whose content is dominated by such a narrative. His remit, really, is learned propositions made 'virtually everywhere' (p. 30) by the English in the 1640-1700 period about ancient philosophy. And what counts as 'philosophy' here? Apparently any set of universalist statements made by non-Christians in antiquity-'Zoroastrian theology' (p. 33) and Greek medicine, for example. Many readers will wonder whether these specifications result from an attempt strictly to 'examine seventeenth-century histories on their own terms' (p. 8), but they do allow Levitin to capture a wide and important slice of an indubitably central but usually sidelined realm of ideational and scholarly innovation in the later 17th century: the study of the past. Levitin's contribution is to provide an array of subtly analyzed, elaborately contextualized, extensively detailed, and often narrativally interrelated examples of the procedures and frameworks that characterized late humanist historical inquiry. He shows that English scholars used these procedures and frameworks to furnish novel accounts of the history of ancient philosophy in a wide variety of settings, from histories of philosophy proper to biblical criticism, apologetics, accounts of early Christianity, and debates on scientific

Studi lockiani. Ricerche sull’età moderna, Dec 21, 2020

In The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695), John Locke describe... more In The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695), John Locke described faith in Jesus the Messiah, repentance for sin, and obedience to the divine moral law as the fundamentals of the Christian religion. According to Locke, adherence to these fundamentals, along with the diligent study of the Bible, is what the Christian Law of Faith prescribes as essential to salvation. All other beliefs and practices are non-fundamental and, hence, irrelevant to salvation. Thus, Locke did not cover non- fundamentals in the Reasonableness. One of the beliefs omitted from Locke’s elucidation of Christianity is the belief in the Trinity. This omission implicitly made belief in the Trinity unnecessary to salvation and was surprising to many, given also that the Reasonableness appeared in the middle of the Trinitarian controversy of the late seventeenth century. Therefore, some critics accused Locke of anti-Trinitarianism and Socinianism and also pressured him to explain his position on the Trinitarian doctrine. Although Locke abstained from publicly clarifying his views on the Trinity, he expressed, unsystematically and at times ambiguously, his views on Christ’s nature and mission in the Reasonableness, A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, and several theological manuscripts. Moreover, he focused on Trinitarian issues in “Adversaria Theologica”, “Lemmata Ethica”, and various other manuscripts. Locke’s public as well as private writings denote a Messianic and non-Trinitarian Christology, which, although presenting Socinian and Arian elements, was essentially grounded in Locke’s own reading of Scripture. Nevertheless, irenic and prudential reasons led him to avoid public discussion of the Trinitarian dogma, for he deemed it inappropriate and immoral to fuel pointless and divisive debates and he considered it unwise to cause himself unnecessary troubles with the authorities.

Locke's religious conception of morality played a primary role in shaping his views on toleration... more Locke's religious conception of morality played a primary role in shaping his views on toleration and salvation. In A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Locke excluded from toleration atheists, whom he considered inherently immoral, and Roman Catholics, whose morals he judged harmful to society. In The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695), he turned to Christian revelation in search of the foundations of morality. His moralist soteriology denied the possibility of salvation to those who, like antinomians and deists, rejected Christ's moral and salvific message. To Locke, antinomians denied any importance to good works, while deists relied on natural reason alone, thus neglecting the limits of unassisted reason and the weakness of human nature. Nevertheless, Locke's hostility to antinomianism and deism did not lead him to invoke the civil power against antinomians and deists, whom he judged still able to understand, albeit partially and imperfectly, the divine law and, thus, to behave morally.

YEARBOOK OF THE MAIMONIDES CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES, 2018

In AL etterc oncerning Toleration,w ritten in late 1685a nd published in 1689,J ohn Lockea rgued ... more In AL etterc oncerning Toleration,w ritten in late 1685a nd published in 1689,J ohn Lockea rgued for the separation between the state and religious organizations.¹ He advocated toleration of all those subscribing to organized religion, be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, or pagans.Nevertheless, as Jonathan Israel has noted, in Locke's Letter 'thosewho subscribe to no organized religion, be they agnostics,D eists or indifferenti,i nc onfessional matters while not explicitlye xcluded are left in av ague This essay is one of the results of astudy period Ispent in HamburgfromFebruarytoJuly 2018, when Iw as aS enior ResearchF ellow of the Maimonides Centref or AdvancedS tudies (MCAS) at the Universityo fH amburg. Before finalizingt his essay,Ip resented its thesis at the 2018 Conferenceo f the International Society forI ntellectual History (ISIH),w hich took placea tt he Universityo fS tA ndrewso nJ une1 0t o1 3, 2018. Iw ould like to express my deepest gratitude to the Directoro ft he MCAS, Prof.G iuseppe Veltri, forh is support, friendship,a nd sincerei nteresti nm yr esearch. I would also like to thank all the administrators,staff members,research associates, and research fellows of the MCAS fortheir assistance, encouragement, and attention to my scholarly activities.C oncerning thisa rticle, Ia mv ery grateful to Dr.B illR ebiger,D r. Raffaele Russo, Dr.J effreyR .W igelsworth, and an anonymous reviewer for their precious suggestions and assistance. Iw ould finally like to thankProf.

Journal of Early Modern Studies

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Cromohs. Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 2010

Cambridge University Press, 2021

Academic Studies Press eBooks, Nov 28, 2019

Zygon, Feb 1, 2021

Journal of Jesuit Studies, Apr 11, 2020

Journal of Early Modern Studies

Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science, 2015

Studi lockiani. Ricerche sull’età moderna, Dec 21, 2020

YEARBOOK OF THE MAIMONIDES CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES, 2018

Journal of Early Modern Studies

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Cromohs. Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 2010

Dialogue and Universalism

Nowadays, more than three centuries after John Locke’s affirmation of the separation between stat... more Nowadays, more than three centuries after John Locke’s affirmation of the separation between state and church, confessional systems of government are still widespread and, even in secular liberal democracies, politics and religion often intermingle. As a result, some ecclesiastical institutions play a significant role in political affairs, while minority groups and individuals having alternative worldviews, values, and lifestyles are frequently discriminated against. Locke’s theory of religious toleration undeniably has some shortcomings, such as the exclusion of Roman Catholics and atheists from toleration and an emphasis on organized religion in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689). However, Locke’s theory of toleration, which presents a Christian’s defense of the civil rights of those who have different religious opinions, still provides powerful arguments for the oft-neglected separation of politics from institutional religion, thereby urging us to leave theological dogmas and ...

Intellectual History Review

ABSTRACT This article investigates the growth and decline of the use of the ante-Nicene Fathers i... more ABSTRACT This article investigates the growth and decline of the use of the ante-Nicene Fathers in relation to Trinitarian issues in seventeenth-century Anglican apologetics. Anglican apologists referred to the writings of the ante-Nicene Fathers as the earliest and most reliable testimonies of Christianity contra what they perceived as Popish, Puritan, and Socinian corruptions of the true religion. On the other hand, Catholic, Reformed, and anti-Trinitarian polemicists stigmatized the incompatibility of the ante-Nicenes’ writings with the Trinitarian dogma formulated at Nicaea and elaborated by the post-Nicene Fathers. In response, several Church of England divines attempted to defend their engagement with the ante-Nicene Fathers from the criticisms of Catholic, Reformed, and anti-Trinitarian polemicists, which exposed their use of the ante-Nicenes in Trinitarian matters to the charge of priestcraft. The historical narratives employed by Anglican apologists ultimately proved ineffective, and even provided various heterodox thinkers, such as John Toland, with additional arguments against the Trinitarian dogma.

Journal of Jesuit Studies

Études Épistémè

The Trinitarian controversy in late seventeenth-century England saw the confrontation of Unitaria... more The Trinitarian controversy in late seventeenth-century England saw the confrontation of Unitarian theologians, who drew on Socinianism and other theological traditions in denying the Trinity, and Trinitarian divines, who provided different justifications of the Trinitarian dogma, mainly through metaphysical speculation. The Trinitarian controversy also gave some deist thinkers, such as Matthew Tindal and John Toland, the opportunity to express even more heterodox views than the ideas of Unitarians like Stephen Nye, who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but still affirmed the divine authority of Scripture and the saving power of Christian revelation. Some historiography has described Tindal’s Letter to the Reverend the Clergy (1694) and Reflections on […] the Doctrine of the Trinity (1695), and Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious (1696) as essentially Unitarian books, indebted to Socinianism and Locke’s way of ideas. However, in their works of the mid-1690s, Tindal and Toland employed historical, critical, and philological methods that subjected Scripture to the criteria of unprejudiced reason and scholarship. Thus, they rejected the possibility of “truths above reason”, and reduced revelation to merely a “means of information”. In these writings, both Tindal and Toland actually adapted Locke’s way of ideas to their respective views and purposes. Tindal’s tracts on the Trinity prefigured the religion of nature that he later explained in Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730), whereas Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious was significantly influenced by Spinoza’s biblical hermeneutics. Briefly, Tindal’s and Toland’s works of the mid-1690s were already deistic in essence.

Cromohs Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 2014

The 2017 Conference of the International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) will take place ... more The 2017 Conference of the International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) will take place at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, from May 30 to June 1, 2017.
The conference theme is: "The Rethinking of Religious Belief in the Making of Modernity".
Keynote speakers: Wayne Hudson (University of Tasmania), Michael Hunter (Birkbeck, University of London), Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), and Lyndal Roper (University of Oxford)
Conference committee: Michael Hunter (Birkbeck, University of London), James A.T. Lancaster (University of Queensland), and Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria)

Deadline for submission of paper and panel proposals: December 31, 2016
Proposals for 20-minute individual papers are welcome. Proposals for panels, consisting of three 20-minute papers, are also welcome. Paper and panel proposals are welcome both from ISIH members and scholars who are not members of the Society.
To submit paper and panel proposals by the deadline of December 31, 2016, and to find more information about the conference, please visit the conference webpage: http://isih.history.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=5093
Papers and panels may concentrate on any period, region, tradition or discipline relevant to the conference theme. The range of potential subjects of investigation is extremely broad, and may include, but is not limited to:
• the contribution of the rediscovery and rethinking of ancient religious beliefs and traditions to the making of modernity;
• innovations in religious belief and theological doctrine since the High Middle Ages, with a focus on their role in shaping the modern world;
• the religious dimensions of Renaissance thought, culture and art;
• the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation in intellectual history;
• the religious dimensions of the Scientific Revolution;
• modern biblical hermeneutics and its impact on the modern mind;
• the relationship between the Enlightenment and religion;
• reason and revelation in natural religion, rational theology, physico-theology, skepticism, fideism, etc.;
• discussing and rethinking traditional religious beliefs (e.g. belief in providence, miracles, prophecy, Messianism, millenarianism, the devil, the hell, exorcism, magic, mystical experience, etc.);
• atheism, deism, skepticism and irreligion;
• the role of religious belief in the Age of Revolution;
• the impact of religious concerns and concepts on legal and political theory;
• religious toleration and religious freedom;
• rethinking the rights, position and role of religious minorities in the making of modernity;
• the consideration of Judaism and Islam in modern western culture;
• interactions between western civilization and Eastern cultures, with a focus on religious matters;
• and religion in philosophical, sociological and historiographical discourses on modernity and post-modernity.

For inquiries, please contact the convenor, Diego Lucci, via email at: dlucci@aubg.edu , or visit the conference webpage: http://isih.history.ox.ac.uk/?page_id=5093

The water, thou behold'st, springs not from vein, Restored by vapour, that the cold converts;

See the review by Gianluca Attademo, "La Rassegna Mensile di Israel", 81, 2-3, Maggio-Dicembre 20... more See the review by Gianluca Attademo, "La Rassegna Mensile di Israel", 81, 2-3, Maggio-Dicembre 2015, pp. 186-189. Here attached.