Atheism and Deism Revalued: Heterodox Religious Identities in Britain, 1650–1800 ed. by Wayne Hudson, Diego Lucci, and Jeffrey R. Wigelsworth (review)

This volume forges a complex picture of how both atheism and deism functioned in specific historical contexts and within the work of Hobbes, Toland, Collins, Wollaston, Tindal, and others. The conventional narrative that deism early in the century planted the seeds for the later development of atheism is put in conversation with a historical methodology that demythologizes deism and atheism as progressions toward radical enlightenment. The essays here defy the notion that any definition of atheism or deism can account for the range of heterogeneous views represented by thinkers associated with these words by carefully parsing their views on both -isms. The very method of the chapters—historically grounded research and evidence that creates complexity through specificity—challenges any overarching narrative of progress.

The key points raised are how atheism and deism can be defined; how an atheist or deist might be identified; and how can we better understand all these authors and their writings by using historically specific approaches. Also addressed is whether atheism is a radical form of deism or an entirely separate approach to religion and philosophy. In general, the writers were often self-censored, were not allowed to write what they wished, or had public lives that seemed to contradict their written work.

Jonathan Israel's foreword provides the larger context, noting the need for historical precision while embracing a teleological model of radical enlightenment that stresses Spinoza's influence at the time and the role that concealment and evasion often played in potentially atheist or deist texts. In the second chapter, Mr. Hudson argues for scholars to forgo grander narratives in favor of attending to the details of specific texts. Thus is framed the tension evident in the collection as a whole.

Influence emerges as an overarching theme, and several chapters do an excellent job of mapping it. In "Thomas Hobbes: 'Father of Atheists,"' Jeffrey R. Collins claims that although we cannot know if Hobbes himself was an atheist, he has been read and accepted into the canon as one. Although he is the "father of atheists," Mr. Collins contends, "Hobbes's atheism was constructed."

If Hobbes would become a major influence on eighteenth-century atheists, Luisa Simonutti and Ian Leask argue in "Deism, Biblical Hermeneutics and Philology" and "The Undivulged Event in Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious," respectively, that Spinoza had a substantial impact on the deism of Toland and that British deism must be understood through a reading of Spinoza. Throughout the book a study of an author leads back to others and reveals that a clear picture involves fully probing interconnected influences. For example, strictly theological texts were a frequent influence. Ms. Simonutti notes the impact of different religious traditions on Toland; Mr. Lucci considers Jewish influence on Wollaston, a competent Hebraist, in "William Wollaston's Religion of Nature," seeing that it affected his understanding of natural religion as universal and led to the development of his particular theology of deism. Mr. Wigelsworth uses his careful attention to Matthew Tindal, who has often been read as an atheist, to show through his texts he was most likely not.

This useful collection covers the complex, interwoven nature of what these historical figures believed and what their texts say about their belief or unbelief. Another strength, an awareness that questions of theology are often politically grounded in their historical moment, becomes a weakness since it is difficult to make truth claims about belief with texts that may have been politically influenced. In the end, the book primarily provides case studies that demonstrate a precise historical methodology. Removing any simple narrative of atheism or deism in the Enlightenment and revealing the complex web of influence, politics, and history at work, the book presents the need to revisit old texts in a new way. Taken together, the chapters leave...