Chapter Four. Religion and Theology II

This chapter considers Hobbes’s treatment of religion in the early chapters of Leviathan, especially in Chapter 12, “Of Religion.” In that chapter, Hobbes presents an account of the psychological “seed” of religion in anxiety and ignorance, an account of God as the mysterious first cause, an analysis of the political differences between pagan religion and biblical religion, and a sketch of the “resolution” of religion back into its first seeds. An examination of these argument brings to light key aspects of Hobbes’s critique of religion and provides evidence of his atheism and antireligious intentions in Leviathan.

Argument (complex analysis) · Atheism · Epistemology · Ignorance · LEVIATHAN (cipher) · Political science · Politics · Sketch · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought