Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
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inc GSTAnxiety about the threat of atheism was rampant in the early modern period, yet fully documented examples of openly expressed irreligious opinion are surprisingly rare. England and Scotland saw only a handful of such cases before 1750, and this book offers a detailed analysis of three of them. Thomas Aikenhead was executed for his atheistic opinions at Edinburgh in 1697; Tinkler Ducket was convicted of atheism by the Vice-Chancellor's court at the University of Cambridge in 1739; whereas Archibald Pitcairne's overtly atheist tract, Pitcairneana, though evidently compiled very early in the eighteenth century, was first published only in 2016. Drawing on these, and on the better-known apostacy of Christopher Marlowe and the Earl of Rochester, Michael Hunter argues that such atheists showed real 'assurance' in publicly promoting their views. This contrasts with the private doubts of Christian believers, and this book demonstrates that the two phenomena are quite distinct, even though they have sometimes been wrongly conflated.
- Provides a clear narrative structure organized by colonial regime
- Explores the French empire as a distinct polity not reducible to the Metropole
- Covers the chronological and geographic range of the whole French empire, from its origins through to the present day
Reviews & endorsements
'Hunter leads us into his subject with authority, deftly uncovering the irreligious underbelly of pre-Enlightenment England and Scotland.' Alexandra Walsham, London Review of Books
Product details
July 2023Hardback
9781009268776
280 pages
235 × 158 × 18 mm
0.49kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Problem of 'Atheism' in Early Modern England
- 3. Atheism among the Godly: The Covert History of Religious Doubt
- 4. 'This degenerate Age… so miserably over-run with Scepticism and Infidelity': The Culture of Atheism after 1660
- 5. 'Aikenhead the Atheist': The Context and Consequences of Articulate Irreligion in the late Seventeenth Century
- 6. An Atheist Text by Archibald Pitcairne: Introduction to Pitcairneana
- 7. The Text of Pitcairneana: Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Eng 1114
- 8. The Trial of Tinkler Ducket: Atheism and Libertinism in Eighteenth-century England
- Appendix
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index.
