The Radical Rhetoric of the English DeistsThe Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists

19971997 James A. HerrickJames A. Herrick

He contends that Deism owes its enduring significance to the rhetorical acumen, textual resources, and iconoclastic motivation of skilled controversialists who sought nothing less than the destruction of Christianity.

Author: James A. Herrick

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

ISBN: 1570031665

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Page: 245

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The Radical Rhetoric of the English Deists illuminates the major battlefields of a rhetorical war waged for the religious mind of Britain and eventually of Europe and the colonies. Focusing on the works of lesser-known but highly influential Deists - Charles Blount, John Toland, Thomas Chubb, Thomas Woolston, Jacob Ilive, and Peter Annet - whose radically controversial spirit and willingness to absorb enormous personal risks made Deist controversy so intriguing and consequential, James A. Herrick examines the long polemic between the English Deists and the Church of England that marked the years between 1680 and 1750. He contends that this sweeping critique of traditional Christian thought owes its lasting impact to the rhetorical acumen, textual resources, and iconoclastic motivation of skilled controversialists who sought nothing less than the destruction of Christianity.

The English DeistsThe English Deists

2015-10-062015-10-06 Wayne HudsonWayne Hudson

It was religious liberalism taken one step further, involving a combination of the
rational theology of Hales, Chillingworth and Tillotson with ideas taken from
Hobbes, Locke and Newton.11 For Stephen, English deism was a rationalist
assertion ...

Author: Wayne Hudson

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317316336

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Page: 224

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Interprets the works of an important group of writers known as 'the English deists'. This title argues that this interpretation reads Romantic conceptions of religious identity into a period in which it was lacking. It contextualizes these writers within the early Enlightenment, which was multivocal, plural and in search of self definition.

Atheism and Deism RevaluedAtheism and Deism Revalued

2016-04-152016-04-15 Wayne HudsonWayne Hudson

84–8; Peter Harrison, 'Religion' and the Religions in the English Enlightenment (
Cambridge, 1990), p. 162; James A. Herrick, The Radical Rhetoric of the English
Deists: The Discourse of Skepticism, 1680–1750 (Columbia SC, 1997), p. 205 ...

Author: Wayne Hudson

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317177579

Category:

Page: 292

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Given the central role played by religion in early-modern Britain, it is perhaps surprising that historians have not always paid close attention to the shifting and nuanced subtleties of terms used in religious controversies. In this collection particular attention is focussed upon two of the most contentious of these terms: ’atheism’ and ’deism’, terms that have shaped significant parts of the scholarship on the Enlightenment. This volume argues that in the seventeenth and eighteenth century atheism and deism involved fine distinctions that have not always been preserved by later scholars. The original deployment and usage of these terms were often more complicated than much of the historical scholarship suggests. Indeed, in much of the literature static definitions are often taken for granted, resulting in depictions of the past constructed upon anachronistic assumptions. Offering reassessments of the historical figures most associated with ’atheism’ and ’deism’ in early modern Britain, this collection opens the subject up for debate and shows how the new historiography of deism changes our understanding of heterodox religious identities in Britain from 1650 to 1800. It problematises the older view that individuals were atheist or deists in a straightforward sense and instead explores the plurality and flexibility of religious identities during this period. Drawing on the most recent scholarship, the volume enriches the debate about heterodoxy, offering new perspectives on a range of prominent figures and providing an overview of major changes in the field.

The English Church in the Eighteenth CenturyThe English Church in the Eighteenth Century

18781878 Charles John AbbeyCharles John Abbey

What real hold had the Deists upon the public mind ? Outcry against the Deists
on all sides The Deists disturbed the prevailing quiet Effects of English Deism in
France . Voltaire Rousseau Effects of English Deism in Germany . Seventeenth ...

Author: Charles John Abbey

Publisher:

ISBN: STANFORD:36105127939846

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Page:

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Rationalism and Deistic Infidelity three letters to the editor of The Record newspaper Republished With a postscriptRationalism and Deistic Infidelity three letters to the editor of The Record newspaper Republished With a postscript

18611861 Alexander MACCAULAlexander MACCAUL

The true forerunners of our Rationalists are such English Deists as Toland ,
Tindal , and Morgan . " In like manner , Hagenbach , * after speaking of the
influence and effect of the Wolfian philosophy , goes on to say , — “ But ,
notwithstanding ...

Author: Alexander MACCAUL

Publisher:

ISBN: BL:A0023395599

Category:

Page:

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Hume on GodHume on God

2008-12-012008-12-01 Timothy S. YoderTimothy S. Yoder

Nor does he address the rich list of divine attributes that most English deists
discovered via natural religion. In mentioning these English deists, he implies
that Hume's alleged attenuated deism is a variety of their deism, but this
connection ...

Author: Timothy S. Yoder

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ISBN: 9781441181589

Category:

Page: 186

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David Hume, one of the most influential philosophers to have written in the English language, is widely known as a skeptic and an empiricist. He is famous for raising questions about the existence of things for which there is insufficient empirical evidence, such as souls, the self, miracles, and, perhaps most importantly, God. Despite this reputation, however, Hume's works contain frequent references to a deity, and one searches in vain to find a positive assertion of atheism. This book proposes a different reading of Hume on God, in which Hume is seen as proposing a 'genuine theism'. Yoder investigates Hume's use of irony and his relationship with the Deists of his era and offers a thorough re-examination of Hume's writings on religion. Yoder concludes that, despite Hume's criticisms of the church, religiously-based ethics and the belief in miracles, he stops well short of a rejection of the existence of God. Always a creative thinker, Hume carves out a unique conception of the divine being.

English DeismEnglish Deism

18831883 John OrrJohn Orr

It was no wonder, therefore, that Deism ended, not in real comprehension of
religion, but in conceptions, the adoption of which cuts the nerve of all religion,-
the conceptions, namely, of God either as a purely transcendent and mechanical
First ...

Author: John Orr

Publisher:

ISBN: HARVARD:AH49TR

Category:

Page: 289

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A History of the English Church Third period From the accession of the House of Hanover to the present time 1717 1884A History of the English Church Third period From the accession of the House of Hanover to the present time 1717 1884

18901890 George Gresley PerryGeorge Gresley Perry

A much more popular assailant of the deists and sceptics was George Berkeley ,
Fellow of Trinity College , Dublin , who , having made a gallant attempt to spread
Christianity among the American Indians , and being obliged to abandon this ...

Author: George Gresley Perry

Publisher:

ISBN: HARVARD:HNZ2IP

Category:

Page:

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A Short History of the English Language and Literature for the Use of French Students A Short History of the English Language and Literature for the Use of French Students

18871887 Jacques ParmentierJacques Parmentier

The school of writers known as the English Deists had begun to appear about the
beginning of the century ; open or covert attacks upon Christianity had
unceasingly proceeded from it and spread not only all over England , but also
over ...

Author: Jacques Parmentier

Publisher:

ISBN: COLUMBIA:1002286092

Category:

Page: 341

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Miscellanies Literary and ReligiousMiscellanies Literary and Religious

18791879 Christopher WordsworthChristopher Wordsworth

... English , " 1840 . The following paragraphs are from a work entitled , “
Rationalism and Deistic Infidelity , " three letters from the Rev . ... The true
forerunners of our Rationalists are such English Deists as Toland , Tindal , and
Morgan . ' In like ...

Author: Christopher Wordsworth

Publisher:

ISBN: PRNC:32101066128198

Category:

Page:

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Religion and the Religions in the English Enlightenment Religion and the Religions in the English Enlightenment

2002-05-022002-05-02 Peter HarrisonPeter Harrison

136–9,505–8) to pre-nineteenth-century English contributions to comparative
religion. Eric Sharpe's more recent Comparative Religion: A History (London:
Duckworth, 1975), 2nd edn (1987), deals with 'deist' contributions to comparative
 ...

Author: Peter Harrison

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 0521892937

Category:

Page: 288

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This book shows how the concept of 'religion' and 'the religions' arose out of controversies in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. The birth of 'the religions', conceived to be sets of beliefs and practices, enabled the establishment of a new science of religion in which the various 'religions' were studied and impartially compared.

Heterodoxy Spinozism and Free Thought in Early Eighteenth Century EuropeHeterodoxy Spinozism and Free Thought in Early Eighteenth Century Europe

1996-08-311996-08-31 Silvia BertiSilvia Berti

[ 6 ] The English Deists and the Traité Rienk H . Vermij ( UNIVERSITY OF
GRONINGEN ) S IS KNOWN , Margaret Jacob in her book The radical
Enlightenment has suggested a link between John Toland and the Traité des
trois imposteurs – in ...

Author: Silvia Berti

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 0792341929

Category:

Page: 532

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'the oldest biography of Spinoza', La Vie de Mr. Spinosa, which in the manuscript copies is often followed by L'Esprit de M. Spinosa. Margaret Jacob, in her Radical Enlightenment, contended that the Traite was written by a radical group of Freemasons in The Hague in the early eighteenth century. Silvia Berti has offered evidence it was written by Jan Vroesen. Various discussions in the early eighteenth century consider many possi ble authors from the Renaissance onwards to whom the work might be attributed. The Trois imposteurs has attracted quite a bit of recent attention as one of the most significant irreligious clandestine writings available in the Enlightenment, which is most important for understanding the develop ment of religious scepticism, radical deism, and even atheism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Scholars for the last couple of decades have been trying to assess when the work was actually written or compiled and by whom. In view of the widespread distribution of manu scripts of the work all over Europe, they have also been seeking to find out who was influenced by the work, and what it represented for its time. Hitherto unknown manuscripts are being turned up in public and private libraries all over Europe and the United States.