Debating Divinity - (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History) by Katherine A East (Hardcover)

About the Book

This study unveils the extensive influence of Cicero's theological dialogues - De natura deorum and De divinatione - on the debates in Enlightenment England concerning the importance of reason, nature, and revelation for determining religious truth.

Book Synopsis

The unrivalled influence of Cicero on pre-modern Western thought is well-known, yet there remain spheres where the Roman's significance has been left unexplored. Debating Divinity recovers for the first time the essential role played by Cicero's theological dialogues - De natura deorum and De divinatione - in the religious debates of Enlightenment England. As early modern thinkers wrestled with the challenges posed to religious orthodoxy by heterodox wielding of nature, science and reason, Cicero's theological dialogues became the surprising field on which new ideas were contested. Combining evidence from both the scholarly tradition and the wider discourse, Debating Divinity reconstructs in full the fascinating place of these dialogues in English intellectual history.

About the Author

Katherine A. East is Senior Lecturer in the History of Radical Ideas at Newcastle University. She has published widely on the intellectual history of early modern Britain, the history of scholarship, and the intellectual and cultural legacy of Cicero.