Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Rational Theology: Henry More's An Antidote against Atheism (1653)
- 2 ‘Prudent Charity’: Richard Baxter's The Reasons of the Christian Religion (1667)
- 3 A Settled Mind? John Wilkins's Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (1675)
- 4 God's Naturalist: John Ray's The Wisdom of God (1691)
- 5 God's Philologist: Richard Bentley's The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism (1692)
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
1 - Rational Theology: Henry More's An Antidote against Atheism (1653)
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Introduction
- 1 Rational Theology: Henry More's An Antidote against Atheism (1653)
- 2 ‘Prudent Charity’: Richard Baxter's The Reasons of the Christian Religion (1667)
- 3 A Settled Mind? John Wilkins's Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (1675)
- 4 God's Naturalist: John Ray's The Wisdom of God (1691)
- 5 God's Philologist: Richard Bentley's The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism (1692)
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Henry More called his An Antidote against Atheism ‘rational theology’, not natural theology. Celebration of rationality – and a polemic against the irrational – persists through the text, which is otherwise remarkably elusive. More draws evidence from the external natural world as well as deducing from innate first principles, asserts the truth of supernatural events as well as urging the wondrousness of natural law itself, and purports to prove conclusively the existence of God while acknowledging that some readers will nonetheless not conclude that God exists. Although More's greatest stated aim is to combat atheism, he spends much of An Antidote combating atheism's pernicious bedfellow, enthusiasm, the mistaken claim of an individual to have access to divine knowledge without the means of reason. Relative to other natural theologies of the period, An Antidote therefore assigns to the human mind a high degree of agency and responsibility, and paints in a positive light the products of human industry, including written texts. More venerates ancient philosophers while protesting that he draws on an innate reason that he and they share. He succeeds better than other natural theologians of the period in keeping revealed doctrine out of his work, nor does he urge readers to supplement his account with what is known more directly about God's existence and nature. God's act of revelation, if it may be called that, was for More effected by his imprinting divine knowledge onto the human mind in ‘actual knowledge’ or ‘divine sagacity’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Natural Theology in the Scientific RevolutionGod's Scientists, pp. 29 - 48Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014