Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-5mhkq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T19:11:55.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE HIDDEN ADAM SMITH IN HIS ALLEGED THEOLOGY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2011

GAVIN KENNEDY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The paper examines assertions that Adam Smith was in some sense a Christian, and examines how much current opinion ignores his biography and the dangerous religious context of eighteenth-century Scotland. Zealots regularly intervened against suspected heresy, which created an atmosphere of intimidation. Adam Smith’s biography shows that he too was intimidated, and avoided scandals that would upset his very religious mother, for whom he felt a special protective bond, and that he hid his private skepticism to ensure that nothing he published would provoke the zealots. A close reading of his Works shows how he amended them consistently as he grew older to modify their religious content, particularly after his mother died in 1784, and up to just before he died in 1790.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 385 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anon, [Dr George Horne, Bishop of Norwich, Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University]. 1777. “A Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D. on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume Esq. By One of the People Called Christians.” Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Addison, W. L. 1901. The Snell Exhibitions from the University of Glasgow to Balliol College, 1728–1858, Glasgow: J. Maclehose.Google Scholar
Alvey, J. 2004. “The Hidden Theology of Adam Smith: A Belated Reply to Hill.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 11(4): 623–628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barfoot, M. 1991. “Dr William Cullen and Mr Adam Smith; A Case of Hypochondriasis?” Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Volume 21, pp. 204–221.Google Scholar
Coase, R. 1976. “Adam Smith’s View of Man.” Journal of Law and Economics 19 (3): 529–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, T. D. 1971. Adam Smith’s Science of Morals. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Dean, D. R. 1975. “James Hutton on Religion and Geology: The Unpublished Preface to His ‘Theory of the Earth’ 1788.” Annals of Science 32: 187–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, D. R. 1992, James Hutton and the History of Geology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. R. 1990. “Adam Smith on the Providential Reconciliation of Individual and Social Interests: Is Man Led by an Invisible Hand or Misled by a Sleight of Hand?” History of Political Economy 22: 341–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denis, A. 2005. “The Invisible Hand of God in Adam Smith.” Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 23-A: 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evensky, A. J. 1993. “Ethics and the Invisible Hand.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (2): 197–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgibbons, A. 1995. Adam Smith’s System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue: The Moral and Political Foundations of the Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Flew, A. 1986. David Hume: Philosopher of Moral Science., Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Haakonssen, K. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, L. 2002. “The Hidden Theology of Adam Smith.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 8 (1):1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, J. 1785. “Memorial Justifying the Present Theory of the Earth from the Suspicion of Impiety.” Manuscript, five pages. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum. In Dean, D. R., ed. “James Hutton on Religion and Geology: The Unpublished Preface to His ‘Theory of the Earth’ 1788.” Annals of Science 32: 187–193. Cited in Deane 1992, pp. 19–24.Google Scholar
Hutton, J. [1785b] 1997. Abstract of a Dissertation Read in the Royal Society of Edinburgh 7 March and 4 April, 1785, concerning the System of the Earth, its Duration, and Stability. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, P. 1984. “An Outline of the Philosophy of James Hutton.” In V. Hope, 5 Philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, pp. 182–210.Google Scholar
Jones, J., and Sander, A.. 2009. “An Exhibition arranged for a Conference of the International Adam Smith Society,” p. 3, Items on Display: Admissions and Degrees Book 1686–1833.” University Archives ref. SP 70, 18 January 1743/4 “Adam Smith e Collegio Ball. Commesalis admissus fuit in facultate Juris Civilis, Licentia sub Chirographo Praefecti Collegii sui prius signficata” (Simon Bailey, Keeper of the Archives).Google Scholar
Kennedy, T. D. 1995. “William Leechman, Pulpit Eloquence and the Glasgow Enlightenment.” In Hook, A. and Sher, R. B., eds., The Glasgow Enlightenment. East Linton: Tuckwell Press, pp. 56–72.Google Scholar
Kleer, R. A. 1995. “Final Causes in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.” Journal of the History of Philosophy XXXIII (2): 275–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleer, R. A. 2000. “The Role of Teleology in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.” History of Economics Review 31: 14–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leslie, T. E. Cliffe. [1870] 1879. “The Political Economy of Adam Smith.” In Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy. Dublin: Dublin University Press, pp. 151–155.Google Scholar
McCulloch, J.R. [1828] 1863. “Smith’s Wealth of Nations, with a Life of the Author, an Introductory Discourse, Notes and Supplemental Dissertations.” New Edition. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.Google Scholar
Macfie, A. L. 1967. The Individual in Society: Papers on Adam Smith. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Magee, W. 1801. Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice. Dublin.Google Scholar
Markikosi, I. A. 2002. “The Challenge of Material Progress: The Scottish Enlightenment and Christian Stoicism.” The Journal of the Historical Society II,1 (Winter): 55–76.Google Scholar
Mossner, E. C. [1954, 1980] 2001. The Life of David Hume. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, D. 1992. “The Invisible Hand; Providence and the Market.” In Heelas, P. and Morris, P., eds., The Values of the Enterprise Culture: The Moral Debate. New York: Routledge, pp. 217–236.Google Scholar
Rae, J. [1895] 1965. Life of Adam Smith. Introduction by Jacob Viner, “Guide to John Rae’s Life of Adam Smith.” New York: Augustus M. Kelley.Google Scholar
Ramsay, J. 1888. “Scotland and Scotsmen” in the Eighteenth Century from the Mss of John Ramsay, Esq. of Ochtertyre. Volume 1. Edited by Allardice, Alexander. Edinburgh: William Blackwood.Google Scholar
Raphael, D. D. 1969. “Adam Smith and the ‘Infection of David Hume’s Society.”’Journal of the History of Ideas 30 (April–June): 225–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raynor, D. R. 1984. “Hume’s Abstract of TMS.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 22: 51–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, I. S. [1995] 2010. The Life of Adam Smith Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Scott, W. S. 1937. “Adam Smith as Student and Professor, with unpublished documents, including parts of the ‘Edinburgh Lectures,’ a draft of The Wealth of Nations, extracts from the muniments of the University of Glasgow and correspondence.” Glasgow: Jackson, Son & Company.Google Scholar
Smith, A. [1744–c50;1785] 1980. The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy in Essays on Philosophical Subjects, eds. Wightman, W.P.D. and Bryce., J.C.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. [1763a] 1978. Lectures On Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. [1763b]1983. Lectures in Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. [1776] 1976. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1977. The Correspondence of Adam Smith Edited by Mossner, E.S. and Ross., I.S.Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Corr.)Google Scholar
Smith, A. [1795] 1980. “Dugald Stewart’s Account of Life and Writings of Adam Smith, L.L.D.” In Ross, I.S., ed., Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ussher, J. Bishop 1658. The Annals of the World. IV. Cited in Craig, G. Y. and Jones, E. J.. 1982, A Geological Miscellany. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, A. 2002. “Economics as Theology: Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations.” Southern Economic Journal 68 (4): 907–921.Google Scholar
Wight, J. B. 2007. “The Treatment of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand.” The Journal of Economic Education 38 (3): 341–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar