THE IDEA OF CHRISTIANITY IN HOBBES'S "LEVIATHAN"

This essay expounds Hobbes's idea of Christianity based on a reading of Leviathan as a whole. Among the conclusions are these: First, that Hobbes was profoundly concerned with the religious questions spawned by the Reformation from start to finish in Leviathan, and there pro vides his most extended, elaborate commentary on Christian belief. The common neglect of the third and fourth parts of Leviathan is a mistake, not only because Hobbes himself believed them of fundamental importance to his theorizing of the conditions for civil peace and spiritual repose, but be cause the themes of the latter two parts are present in the first two parts per sistently. Leviathan may be seen as a religious treatise and not only a work of political philosophy. Second, in Leviathan Hobbes has worked out a detailed version of re formed Christianity that is his own, based on his own reading and interpreta tion of the Scriptures but also informed by his familiarity with the major theo logical issues of his era. He offers, for example, particularly in Chapter 42, a detailed refutation of the arguments of the leading Roman Catholic spokesman, Cardinal Bellarmine, against the reformed churches. Third, the arguments of Leviathan are Hobbes's contribution to dispelling the terrors and mystifications of religious belief, as well as the mysteries of political authority. This is neither to dispel belief itself, nor a denial that con cern for our destiny after death is significant. Fourth, Hobbes shows how it is possible to harmonize and reve lation, without depending on Aristotle, insisting that it is the religious duty to do this. In his religious humanism, Hobbes thus keeps at the center of his thought this central question of reason and revelation posed by the medieval tradition of the philosophy of the Schoolmen whom he otherwise reviles for their corruption under the influence of ancient philosophy. He seeks a Christianity purified of extrinsic influences. Fifth, Hobbes's proposals for seeking religious and civil peace conjointly are such, he thinks, as to enhance the capacity of individuals to take personal responsibility for civic and spiritual virtue, consistent both with their inevitable dependence on their own understanding and judgment, and with their admit ted need for reliable and unambiguous political authority, leading to a new level of liberty and dignity, and to a sophisticated appreciation for the impor tance of civil law.