Deism

Deists - dēˈĭsts, term commonly applied to those thinkers in the 17th and 18th cent. who held that the course of nature sufficiently demonstrates the existence of God. For them formal religion was superfluous, and they scorned as spurious claims of supernatural revelation. Their tenets stemmed from the rationalism of the period, and though the term is not now generally used Read More...

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Deism

1.

Against the Faith: Essays on Deists, Skeptics, and Atheists
by Jim Herrick. 223 pgs.

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An enlightening history of deism, skepticism, and atheism from the 18th to 20th centuries.

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Against the Faith: Essays on Deists, Skeptics and Atheists

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

I Pierre Bayle and Jean Meslier: Open Scepticism and Covert Atheism

2 the English Deists: Removing the Mystery from God

3 Voltaire: Écrasez L'Infâme

4 Diderot and the Encyclopedists: the Mastery of Knowledge

5 D'Holbach: 'Raining Bombs on the House of the Lord'

6 David Hume: the Saintly Infidel

7 Gibbon: the Decline of God's Historic Role

8 Thomas Paine: the Age of Reason

9 Heine and Büchner: Atheism and Revolution

10 Shelley and Carlile: Printing Against the Creed

Ii Bradlaugh and Secularism: 'the Province of the Real'

12 John Stuart Mill and George Eliot: a Religion of Humanity

13 Thomas Huxley: Religion and Science

14 Emerson, Ingersoll, Twain: Three Secular Preachers

15 Bertrand Russell: a Passionate Rationalist

Epilogue

Selected Bibliography

Index
2.

Hume, Newton, and the Design Argument (Chap. 4 "Deists")
by Robert H. Hurlbutt III. 214 pgs.

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Hume, Newton, and the Design Argument

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Newtonianism Science and Theology in the Eighteenth Century

C H a P T E R 1: Newton's Scientific Theism

C H a P T E R 2: Other Contemporary Scientists

C H a P T E R 3: Philosophers and Theologians

Chapter 4: Deists

Chapter 5: Conclusions to Part One

Part Two: The Ancient and Medieval Context of the Design Argument

Chapter 6: In Classical Thought Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Philo

C H a P T E R 7: In Medieval Thought Augustine, Aquinas, and Others

C H a P T E R 8: Conclusions to Part Two

Part Three: The Denouement Hume and the Design Argument

C H a P T E R 9: Hume's Critique of Natural Theology

C H a P T E R 10: The Curtain Call

C H a P T E R 11: Epilogue the Contemporary Context of Natural Theology

Index
3.

The Deist Minimum, in First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
by Avery Cardinal Dulles. 6 pgs.

Magazine Article
4.

Popular Free Thought in America, 1825-1850
by Albert Post. 247 pgs.

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Popular Freethought in America, 1825-1850

Preface

Table of Contents

Chapter I Early American Freethought

Chapter II the Rise and Fall of the Freethought Press

Chapter III Infidel Societies

Chapter IV Propaganda

Chapter V National Organization

Chapter VI Scepticism and Socialism

Chapter VII the Diffusion of Freethought

Chapter VIII Infidelity Attacked

Chapter IX the Creed of the Freethinker

Bibliography Works Cited Only

Index
5.

The Columbia History of Western Philosophy ("Deism" begins on p. 437)
by Richard H. Popkin. 836 pgs.

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-- Library Journal

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The Columbia History of Western Philosophy

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contributors

The Columbia History of Western Philosophy

1: Origins of Western Philosophic Thinking

2: Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy

3: Medieval Christian Philosophy

4: The Renaissance

5: Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

6: Eighteenth-Century Philosophy

7: Nineteenth-Century Philosophy

8: Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy

9: Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy

Epilogue

Epilogue: On the History of Philosophy

Index of Names

Index of Subject
6.

Religious Liberalism in Eighteenth-Century England (Chap. V "The Definition of Deism" and Chap. VI "Highlights of the Deistic Controversy")
by Roland N. Stromberg. 192 pgs.

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Preface

Contents

Introduction

I: The Nature of the Crisis

II: Preparations for Religious Liberalism

III: The Limits of the Debate

IV: Arians and Socinians

V: The Definition of Deism

VI: High Lights of the Deistic Controversy

VII: Orthodoxy at Bay

VIII: Arminianism

IX: The Secularization of Politics

X: Religion and the Ruling Class

XI: Religion and Social Reform

XII: Conclusion

Bibliography

Index
7.

Seeds of Liberty: The Genesis of the American Mind (1948) ("Deism" begins on p. 40)
by Max Savelle. 652 pgs.

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Preface

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter I of the Ways of God with Men -- and of Men with God

Chapter II of the Universe of Nature and of Reason: Newtonian Science

Chapter III of the Meaning of Existence: Philosophy

Chapter IV of Land, of Labor, and of Economic Freedom

Chapter V of Society and Social Freedom: Social Thought

Chapter VI of the State, of Government, and of the Natural Rights of Man: Political Thought

Chapter VII of the Literary Expression of Experience

Chapter VIII of the American Spirit in Painting and in Architecture

Chapter IX of Music, and of America Singing

Chapter X of Loyalties, and of the British- American Nation

Conclusion the Seeds of Liberty

Index
8.

Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths (Chap. 1 "Deists and the Scandal of Particularity")
by Gerald R. McDermott. 245 pgs.

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This is a study of how American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) battled deist arguments about revelation and God's fairness to non-Christians. Author Gerald McDermott argues that Edwards was preparing before his death a sophisticated theological response to Enlightenment religion that was unparalleled in the eighteenth century and surprisingly generous toward non-Christian traditions.

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Title Page

Preface

Contents

Abbreviations

Introduction: A Strange, New Edwards

1: Deists and the Scandal of Particularity

2: Edwards S War Against Enlightenment Religion

II: Strategies of Response

3: Our Noblest Faculty

4: Signatures of Divine Majesty

5: Trickle-Down Revelation and Religious Entropy

6: Parables in All Nations Typology and the Religions

7: A Possibility of Reconciliation

III: Strategies Applied

8: Judaism

9: Islam

10: Greece and Rome

11: American Indians

12: The Chinese Philosophers

Conclusion: Confounding the Enfightemnent

Selected Bibliography

Index
9.

American Philosophy: The Early Schools (1907) (Book III "Deism")
by I. Woodbridge Riley. 595 pgs.

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Preface

Contents

Introduction

Ii Philosophy and Politics

Book I--Puritanism

Chapter II Anti-Puritanism

Book Ii--Idealism

Chapter II Samuel Johnson

Chapter III Jonathan Edwards

Book Iii--Deism

Chapter II Harvard College

Chapter III Yale College

Chapter IV King's College and Princeton

Chapter V Philadelphia and Franklin

Chapter VI Virginia and Jefferson

Chapter VII Popular Deism

Chapter VII The Decline of Deism

Book Iv--Materialism

Chapter II Cadwallader Colden

Chapter III Joseph Buchanan

Chapter IV Joseph Priestley

Chapter V Thomas Cooper

Chapter VI Benjamin Rush

Book V--Realism

Chapter II The Princeton School

Chapter III John Witherspoon

Chapter IV Samuel Stanhope Smith

Chapter V Samuel Miller

Chapter VI Frederick Beasley

Chapter VII The Lesser Realists

Appendix

Index

Index
10.

Joseph Butler's Moral and Religious Thought: Tercentenary Essays (Chap. 1 "Butler and Deism" and Chap. 2 "Deus Absconditus: Some Notes on the Bearing of the Hiddenness of God upon Butler's and Pascal's Criticism of Deism")
by Christopher Cunliffe, Joseph Butler. 320 pgs.

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The essays in this book mark the tercentenary of the birth of Bishop Joseph Butler, the leading Anglican theologian of the eighteenth century and also an important moral philosopher. They cover the full range of Butler's theological and philosophical writings--from his Christian apologetic against the deists to his discussion of the role of their historical context and suggestion of their relevance to contemporary religious and philosophical issues. At a time of renewed interest in Butler's thought, as well as in the theological positions he was opposing, it is timely and appropriate that these detailed studies of Butler's thought should now be made available.

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Title Page

Foreword DAVID JENKINS, BISHOP OF DURHAM

Contents

Contributors

Introduction CHRISTOPHER CUNLIFFE

I Butler and Deism

2 Deus absconditus: Some Notes on the Bearing of the Hiddenness of God upon Butler's and Pascal's Criticism of Deism

3 The 'Spiritual Sovereign': Butler's Episcopate

4 Bishop Butler and the Zeitgeist: Butler and the Development of Christian Moral Philosophy in Victorian Britain

5 Butler as a Christian Apologist

6 Butler and Human Ignorance

7 A God most Particular: Aspects of Incarnation in Butler's Morality

8 Butler and Immortality T. A. ROBERTS

9 Our Knowledge of Ourselves

10 Butler on Conscience and Virtue

11 Conscience as Self-Authorizing in Butler's Ethics

12 Butler on Self-Love and Benevolence

13 Butler on Benevolence

14 Butler on God and Human Nature

Index
11.

Religious Thought in the Eighteenth Century: Illustrated from Writers of the Period (Chap. 6 "Why the True Deist Should not Reject Christianity" by Samuel Clarke)
by John Martin Creed, John Sandwith Boys Smith. 306 pgs.

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Title Page

Preface

Contents

Introduction

I: Natural Religion and Revelation

1. The Certainty of the Existence of God

2. The Reasonableness of Christianity

3. Of Enthusiasm

4. Christianity not Mysterious

5. Natural Religion Without Revelation

6. Why the True Deist Should not Reject Christianity

7. Lack of Universality not an Objection to Revelation

8. Christianity as Old as the Creation

9. Nature and the Artificer of Nature

10. From Nature to Revelation

II: The Credentials of Revelation

1. The Certainty of the Christian Religion Proved by Four Rules

2. Old Testament Prophecies Restored with the Help of the New Testament

3. The Gospel Founded Upon Allegory

4. The Limitation of Prophecy

6. The Apostles Tried and Acquitted

7. Alleged Miraculous Powers of the Ancient Church Explained

8. No Testimony Sufficient to Establish a Miracle

9. The Truth of Christianity Proved by Internal Marks of Divinity

10. The Guarantee of True Testimony

III: The Grounds and Sufficiency of Natural Religion Considered

1. The Limits of Reason

2. The World as Divine Visual Language

3. The Authority of Conscience

4. The Analogy of Religion Natural and Revealed to the Constitution and Course of Nature

5. The Arguments for Natural Religion Reviewed

6. The Origin of Religion in Human Nature Distinguished from Its Foundation in Reason

IV: The Passing of the Age of Reason

1. Salvation by Faith: A Gospel for Sinners

3. The Truths of History and the Truths of Reason

4. Revelation as the Education of the Human Race

5. The Realm of Nature and the Realm of Ends

6. The Good Will and the Moral Law

7. Faith in God, Freedom, and Immortality

8. Human Nature Radically Bad

1. The Necessity of a True History of Scripture

V: The Study of the Bible

2. The Composition of the Old Testament

3. The Sources of Genesis

4. The Bible as Literature

5. The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry

VI: The Church in Its Relation to the State

2. The Church Not Dependent Upon the State

3. Christ's Kingdom Not of This World

4. Church Authority Real Though Not Absolute

5. The Alliance Between Church and State

6. Establishment to Be Justified by its Utility

7. Religion the Consecration of the Commonwealth

8. That in a Christian Commonwealth Church and State Are One Thing

9. Civil Establishment of Religion an Innovation and an Evil

Index of Authors and Passages
12.

The Growth of American Thought ("The Spread of Rationalism and Deism" begins on p. 110 and "The Spread of Deism" begins on p. 156)
by Merle Curti. 912 pgs.

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Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Preface to the Second Edition

Part I the American Adaptation of the European Heritage

Chapter II Colonial Conditions Modify the Old World Heritage

Chapter III the Christian Heritage

Chapter IV the Transmission of Polite Learning and of Scientific Interests

Chapter V the Rise of the Enlightenment

Part II the Growth of Americanism

Chapter VII the Expanding Enlightenment

Chapter VIII the Conservative Reaction

Part III Patrician Leadership

Chapter X Nationalism Challenges Cosmopolitanism and Regionalism

Chapter XI the West Challenges Patrician Leadership

Part IV Democratic Upheaval

Chapter XIII the Advance of Science and Technology

Chapter XV New Goals for Democracy

Chapter XVI the Rising Tide of Patriotism and Nationalism

Part V Triumph of Nationalism in Social and Political Thought

Chapter XVIII the Thrust of the Civil War into Intellectual Life

Chapter XIX the Nature of the New Nationalism

Chapter XX Business and the Life of the Mind

Part VI the Assertion of Individualism in a Corporate Age of Applied Science

Chapter XXII Evolutionary Thought in a Utilitarian Society

Chapter XXIII Professionalization and Popularization of Learning

Chapter XXV the Conservative Defense

Part VII Optimism Encounters Diversion, Criticism, and Contraction

Chapter XXVI America Recrosses the Oceans

Chapter XXVII Prosperity, Disillusionment, Criticism

Chapter XXVIII Crisis and New Searches

Chapter XXIX American Assertions in a World of Upheaval

Bibliographical Note

Index
13.

The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity
by S. J. Barnett. 244 pgs.

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Contents

Contents Acknowledgements

Introduction

1: The Myth of Enlightenment Deism

2: Historians, Religion and the Historical Record

3: The English Deist Movement

4: France

5: Italy

6: The 'Public Sphere' and the Hidden Life of Ideas
14.

Universe as the Interaction of Its Parts with Limitations, in Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Includes discussion of deism)
by Rostam Khorsandian. 13 pgs.

Journal Article

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