Hobbes and Theology, "Hobbes Studies" Special Issue 2013

Going beyond the belief-unbelief controversy in the scholarly debate about Hobbes’s theological ideas, the essays in this issue look at his theology as a practical science aiming at particular ends, irrespective of the religious feelings of this philosopher. This is both to reassert the seriousness of Hobbes’s discourse on theology and to show how deeply political issues are involved in the development of his theological science. Thus, looking from this point of view, his theses on heresy turn out to be the necessary corollary of his attempt to de-legitimate clerical control over politics; while in order to answer the ‘Foole’ and solve the legitimacy enigma Almighty God appears to be the divine icon of earthly kings rather than the Lord of a transcendent world. Likewise the correspondence between political theology and materialism is shown by investigating both the new meaning of ‘Potentia Dei’ in Hobbes’s theological thought and the radical outcomes he draws by criticizing the Cartesian argument of the Deus deceptor. On the whole, all the essays converge in highlighting the strong connection between new ideas on nature and knowledge, theological nonconformity and political science in Hobbes’s thought.