The Cambridge Platonists and Early Modern Philosophy: Inventing the Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism)

Cover
Half-title page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Cambridge Platonists and Philosophy of Religion
Part I The Origins of Cambridge Platonism
	1 Learned and Ingenious Men
		The Lives and Times of the Cambridge Platonists
			Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683)
			Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688)
			John Smith (c. 1618–1652)
			Henry More (c. 1614–1687)
		On the Idea (and Existence) of Cambridge Platonism
		The Evidence of the Eight Letters
			The Learned and Ingenious Men and Their Platonic ‘Veine of Doctrine’
	2 ‘Plato and His Scholars’: Early Cambridge Platonism
		What Is a Platonist?
		The ‘Public Profession of Platonism’ at Cambridge
			University and College Life
			Henry More
			Ralph Cudworth
			John Worthington
			John Smith
			John Sadler and Peter Sterry
			Laurence Sarson
		Early Cambridge Platonism, c. 1635–1640
	3 Puritanism and Predestination
		Puritanism and Reformed Theology, 1600–1640
			The English Puritans
			Double Predestination
			The Rise of Anti-Calvinism: ‘Arminianism’ and ‘Laudianism’
			‘A Cataclysmic Showdown’
			Puritans in Power
		Calvinism and Anti-Calvinism at Cambridge, c. 1626–1649
			Emmanuel and Christ’s: Puritan Seminaries
			‘The Godly Emmanuel Mafia’
			Philosophy in the Puritan Colleges
			Pricking the Conscience
			Cambridge Anti-Calvinists
	4 Cambridge Platonists versus Cambridge Calvinists: John Goodwin and the 1651 Whichcote–Tuckney Correspondence
		The Parliamentary Purges
		John Goodwin and Redemption Redeemed
		Charles Hotham and the ‘Goodwin Fan Club’
		Umbra Comitiorum and the 1651 Commencement
		Conclusions
Part II Rival Conceptions of God and Goodness: The Platonic Anti-Calvinism of the Cambridge Platonists
	5 Goodness and the Will of God: Moral Realism versus Voluntarism
		Metaethical Voluntarism in Calvinist Theology
			Luther’s Bondage of the Will
			Calvin’s Appeal to Voluntarism
			Perkins and Preston: Voluntarism in the Cambridge Calvinists
		Ralph Cudworth’s Moral Realism
			The Commons Sermon: The Euthyphro Dilemma
			Dantur Rationes Boni et Mali Aeterni et Indispensabiles
		Henry More’s Moral Realism
		John Smith’s Moral Realism
		Benjamin Whichcote’s Moral Realism
			God ‘Under the Power of Goodness’
			Later Whichcote on Moral Realism
		Conclusions
	6 Is God an Arbitrary Tyrant? Platonic Participation versus the Decree of Reprobation
		The Problem of ‘Divine Tyranny’
			Arbitrariness and Tyranny in Political Discourse, c. 1620–1650
			Reprobation as Divine Tyranny
			More, Cudworth and Smith against Divine Tyranny
			Whichcote against Divine Tyranny
		What Glorifies God? Communication versus Reprobation
			Crypto-Realist Defences of Reprobation
			Divine Communicative Intent
			Reprobation and the Glory of God
			Divine and Human Goodness
		Conclusions
	7 Righteousness Real and Imagined: Participation and Deification versus Imputed Righteousness
		Justification, Sanctification and Imputed Righteousness
			Justification in the Reformed Theological Tradition
			Imputed versus Inherent Righteousness
			Imputation and Voluntarism
		The ‘Platonique Faith’ of the Cambridge Platonists
			The ‘Prejudice of Imputed Righteousness’
			A Platonic Theory of Justification
			‘High-Flown Platonists’
			The Cambridge Platonists’ Doctrine of Justification in Context
		Natural Virtue and Heaven-Bound Heathens
			Reformed Theology on the Natural Virtues of Non-Christians
			The Divine Heathens
		Conclusions
Part III The Religious Epistemology of the Cambridge Platonists
	8 Reason and the Mind of God: Platonic Religious Epistemology
		Knowing God through Reason
			Platonic Knowledge by Resemblance
			The Moral Dimension of Reason
		God-Likeness: A Good Mind and a Good Life
			‘A Good Mind’: Cognitive God-Likeness
			‘A Good Life’: Practical God-Likeness
		Conclusions
	9 Deification as Spiritual Sensation: The Epistemology of Religious Experience
		Perceiving God
			Reason as Spiritual Sense
			Deification as Direct Acquaintance
		Misperceiving God
			Passions as Epistemic Distortions
			Animal Imagination
			Imagination and Divine Anthropomorphism
			Self-Will: Will Overruling Reason
			Self-Will as the Cause of Voluntarism
		Reason Bridging the Divine and the Human
	10 Liberty, Violence and Practical Reason: Moral Obligation and the Law of Love
		Divine Reason and Divine Liberty
		Human Liberty
		Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
		Conclusions
	Conclusion: The Cambridge Platonists as Early Modern Christian Platonists
		The Platonism of the Cambridge Platonists
		Continuities and Discontinuities
		Christian Platonism and Modernity
References
Index