Jeremy Waldron and the Religious Turn in Locke Scholarship

Bibliographic Data

ID6401481
AuthorsPaul E Sigmund (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume67
Issue3
Pages407-418
Publication date2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s003467050003463x
OpenAlexW2123777441
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited28

The title,God, Locke, and Equality, as well as its controversial thesis about the necessity of a theological foundation for equality are designed to startle and provoke. Yet those who have kept up with Locke scholarship (not an easy job since there are 5–10 new books on Locke each year, and over 9000 articles have been published about his work) will recognize that in recent years, its topic, the relation of Locke's religious beliefs to his politics, has become an important theme in the interpretation of Locke's political philosophy. This article will attempt to place the book in the context of this literature and evaluate its contribution to the growing number of studies.In the early years of what John Pocock once called “the Locke industry,” Locke's religious beliefs did not get much attention. The two most influential interpretations of his political thought portrayed him either as a crypto-Hobbesian hedonist, or an apologist for capitalist exploitation, ignoring or explaining away his commitment to Christianity. It is true that John Dunn in his book on Locke's political theory made much (perhaps too much) of Locke's Calvinist upbringing, only to dismiss his political thought as so dominated by a religious worldview that it is irrelevant today

Christianity · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Scholarship · Sociology · Theme (computing · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Religious studies

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