Book contents
- Hobbes’s On the Citizen
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Hobbes’s On the Citizen
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Excavating On the Citizen
- Chapter 2 Hobbes and Aristotle on the Foundation of Political Science
- Chapter 3 All the Mind’s Pleasure: Glory, Self-Admiration, and Moral Motivation in On the Citizen and Leviathan
- Chapter 4 The Right of Nature and Political Disobedience: Hobbes’s Puzzling Thought Experiment
- Chapter 5 Motivation, Reason, and the Good in On the Citizen
- Chapter 6 Property and Despotic Sovereignty
- Chapter 7 Sovereignty and Dominium: The Foundations of Hobbesian Statehood
- Chapter 8 Corporate Persons without Authorization
- Chapter 9 Hobbes on Love and Fear of God
- Chapter 10 “A Rhapsody of Heresies”: The Scriptural Politics of On the Citizen
- Chapter 11 On the Citizen and Church-State Relations
- Chapter 12 Sovereign-Making and Biblical Covenants in On the Citizen
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Chapter 10 - “A Rhapsody of Heresies”: The Scriptural Politics of On the Citizen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2019
- Hobbes’s On the Citizen
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Hobbes’s On the Citizen
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Excavating On the Citizen
- Chapter 2 Hobbes and Aristotle on the Foundation of Political Science
- Chapter 3 All the Mind’s Pleasure: Glory, Self-Admiration, and Moral Motivation in On the Citizen and Leviathan
- Chapter 4 The Right of Nature and Political Disobedience: Hobbes’s Puzzling Thought Experiment
- Chapter 5 Motivation, Reason, and the Good in On the Citizen
- Chapter 6 Property and Despotic Sovereignty
- Chapter 7 Sovereignty and Dominium: The Foundations of Hobbesian Statehood
- Chapter 8 Corporate Persons without Authorization
- Chapter 9 Hobbes on Love and Fear of God
- Chapter 10 “A Rhapsody of Heresies”: The Scriptural Politics of On the Citizen
- Chapter 11 On the Citizen and Church-State Relations
- Chapter 12 Sovereign-Making and Biblical Covenants in On the Citizen
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Summary
This chapter identifies and explains three important changes in Hobbes’s religious arguments from The Elements of Law to On the Citizen. First, Hobbes comes to focus more on religious and scriptural matters, devoting a greater amount of space to them in On the Citizen than in Elements of Law. Second, Hobbes’s argumentative strategy evolves. He multiplies independent lines of argument for the same central claims. Third, the content of Hobbes’s arguments changes. In On the Citizen, he takes a Hebraic turn, offering a new and detailed discussion of the Israelite kingdom of God and relying far more heavily on scriptural evidence from the Old Testament. In each case, these changes can be explained by the changing political context in England and Hobbes’s increasing sensitivity to the challenges of religious pluralism.
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- Hobbes's On the CitizenA Critical Guide, pp. 180 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019