The Piety of the English Deists: Their Personal Relationship with an Active God (original) (raw)
Related papers
2007
Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1582-1648) is considered by many scholars to be the "father of English deism" as well as one of the earliest English precursors to the European Enlightenment. 2 Although historian Eugene D. Hill places Herbert's deistic works among the third generation of European Deists, Herbert is largely recognized as the chief progenitor of English deism. 3 This is likely because his works were the first to be published in England with a claim of authorship rather than circulated in a clandestine fashion. Largely overshadowed by his younger brother, the poet George Herbert, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Edward was an acclaimed author, philosopher, historian and statesman during his lifetime. 4 Interestingly Herbert has been characterized by later scholars and philosophers both as a "dandy" and a "fop" and, more ominously, as the "Black Lord Herbert." 5 To understand the religious views of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury it is advantageous to gain a basic knowledge of the life he lived and the influences that surrounded him. To this end I will first diverge slightly from our topic in order to provide a brief biography in an effort to shed light both on Herbert's person and the world that he lived in as it related to him.
Propositional Revelation and the Deist Controversy: A Note
Ruch Filozoficzny, 2016
One of the most passionate debates in Early Modern British and Irish thought concerned divine revelation. The debate, also known as the Deist controversy, lasted from 1690s to 1730s and focused on the issue of whether Christian religion is a revelation from God and contains supernatural truths that transcend the human intellect. 1 The truths in question include the Christian mysteries such as the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the resurrection of the dead. A number of unorthodox thinkers who came to be known as deists or freethinkers claimed that natural or rational religion is in fact the only true religion and Christianity-the purported revealed religion-does not add anything substantial to our rational knowledge of God and his relation to us. The deists held that all genuine religious doctrines are clear, comprehensible and accessible to the human intellect. They often regarded religious rituals and institutions as redundant and effectually reduced worship to the observation of moral duties. Far from forming a homogeneous group, they all expressed views that many proponents of the established church regarded as hostile towards religion in general and dangerous for the whole society. Accordingly, defenders of the established church and religion published apologetic responses to those unorthodox views
Deism has long served as an intellectual haven for those convinced of God's existence yet are disenchanted with organized religion. Despite its principal doctrines resonating with many, deism is not discussed and debated in the public sphere as often as theistic or naturalistic worldviews. Mindful of this, the purpose of this article is to shed light on deism's core doctrines and offer a critical assessment of their soundness. I advance three critiques of deism: 1) deism is incoherent given God's wisdom; 2) deism is incoherent given God's moral character; and 3) divine revelation is possible and significant. I also refute two arguments in favor of deism: 1) the impossibility of miracles and 2) the argument from divine hiddenness. I conclude that deism suffers from grave theological difficulties that warrant deeming it an unviable religious worldview worthy of rejection.
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Anglicans - The Oxford Handbook of Deification
The Oxford Handbook of Deification, 2024
Treatments of deification among “Anglicans” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stand out as noteworthy for contemporary discussions of the doctrine for four interconnected reasons. First, in these figures one witnesses a sustained articulation of deification in the West, countering the prevalent perception of deification as an exclusively Eastern Christian doctrine. Second, these figures draw their views of deification from patristic figures of both East and West, and more fundamentally from scripture, demonstrating that, for early Anglicans, the doctrine is not of a particularly Eastern provenance. Third, for Richard Hooker and a number of Cambridge Platonists, deification does not supplant justification (as some contemporary advocates of deification are eager to do), but rather coordinates with justification and sanctification in a coherent soteriological vision. Fourth, for Anglicans deification has an uncommon ecclesiological importance, as the doctrine plays a central role in distinguishing the English Church from Roman Catholic and “Puritan” alternatives.
The Parting of God: Diagnosing the Fate of Divine Simplicity in 20 th Century Theol- ogy
What Happened to Divine Simplicity in the 20th Century? Robert Jenson once wrote that "it is precisely at this point [Divine Simplicity]" that contemporary theology rebels against. What happened to cause this shift? While there are certainly many conceptual difficulties with DDS, this paper argues that several major criticisms are actually the result of caricature and historical distortion. These historical distortions can be traced to the coining of the category "Classical Theism," which itself isn't so classical but arose as a term of polemic by Process theologians and philosophers in the mid-20th century.