Table Of Contente.s.say.r on the c!!ifbobilization oj'{f{ea.son
Enlightenment and Secularism
Essays on the Mobilization ofR ea san
Edited by Christopher Nadon
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Contents
Acknow ledgments
IX
Foreword x1
Enlightenment and Secularism: Introduction xm
Christopher Nadan
Italian 1
1 Reason, Authority, and the People in Machiavelli' s Discourses
Mliry 3
Christopher Lynch
2 Paolo Sarpi and the Venetian Interdict 15
Christapher Nadan
British and Dutch 2 7
3 The Dawn of Secularism in Shakespeare'sMerchant afVenice 29
Rafael Majar
4 The Problem ofNatural Piety: Bacon on the Prospects ofthe
Secularization Project 41
Svetazar Minkav
5 Bacon'sNew Atlantis: From Faith in God to Faith in Progress 55
Rabert Faulkner
6 Dutch Commercial Republicanism in the Story of
Secularization: Pieter De la Court's Palitical Maxims afthe
State afHalland (1662) 67
Henry C. Clark
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VI Contents
7 Locke, Capitalism, and the Bible 79
Nasser Behnegar
8 Hume's Critique and Defense ofReligion 89
Ryan P atrick H anley
9 The Theological Roots of Secular Modernism 103
Andre Wakejield
French 113
1O Montaigne, Secularism, and the Enlightenment 115
Benjamín Storey
11 Blaise Pascal, Pierre Nicole, and the Origins ofLiberal Sociology 129
PaulA. Rahe
12 Godfathers and Spiritual Warriors: The Political Philosophy of
Pierre Bay le 141
Dean DiSpalatro
13 Voltaire and the Lettres philosophiques 159
Johnson Kent Wright
14 Montesquieu and the Spirit of Secularism: Books 24 and 25 of
The Spirit ofthe Laws 175
Andrea Radasanu
15 Between Religious Fanaticism and Philosophical Fanaticism:
Rousseau's "Profession ofFaith ofthe Savoyard Vicar" 189
John T. Scott
16 Tocqueville's Puzzling Secularism 199
Alice Behnegar
American 213
17 American Mutual Assistance Practices in the Age of the
Enlightenment 215
Brian J. Glenn
18 Nature and Nature's God in Notes on the State ofVirginia 231
Jeremy D. Bailey
19 Secularism and the Logic of American Constitutionalism 241
George Thomas
20 The World through Ben's Bifocals 257
Ralph Lerner
German 271
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Contents
Vll
21 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Religious Pluralism inNathan the
Wise and The Fragments Controversy 273
Friederike von Schwerin-.High
22 Setting the Stage for Secularization: Theocracy and Liberalism
in Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem 289
Allan Arkush
23 Canine Conundrum: The Pantheism Controversy and the Crisis
of Secularism 299
DavidJanssens
24 Friedrich Schiller, Secular Virtue, and "The Gods of Ancient
Greece" (1788) 315
Jeffrey L. High
25 Aesthetic Education in Mozart'sMagic Flute 325
Fred E. Baumann
26 Kant' s Secular Religion: Philosophical Theodicy and The Book
ofJob 339
SusanMeld Shell
27 Hegel and Secularism 351
MarkBlitz
28 Freud's Moses: The Enlightenment Bible of a Godless Jew 363
DavidBiale
Index 375
About the Contributors 385
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the generous financia! support of the Earhart
Foundation during the time I began organizing and putting this volume to
gether~ my gratitude to Barry Kosmin and the Institute for the Study of
Secularism, Society and Culture for sponsoring a series of course develop
ment grants and faculty seminars at Claremont McKenna College devoted to
the topic of Secularism and the and my thanks to Bipasa
Enlightenment~
Nadon and Alisan Gushue for their invaluable help in reformatting the essays
for publication and to Petria Fleming for compiling the index.
David Biale's "Freud's Moses: The Enlightenment Bible of a Godless Jew"
is derived from materials previously published in his Not in the Heavens
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 201 0).
Ralph Lemer's "The World Through Ben's Bifocals" was previously
published in Apples ofGold in Pictures ofSilver: Honoring the Work ofLeon
R. Kass, edited by Yuval Levin (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010).
Susan Meld Shell's "Kant's Secular Religion: Philosophical Theodicy
and the Book ofJ ob" was previously published in Rethinking Kant: Volume
3, edited by Oliver Thorndike (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2011).
Christopher Nadon
October 2012
Claremont
IX
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Foreword
It might be surprising to the writers of the classic texts of the Enlightenment
and the early proponents of secularism to leam that their ideas and values are
still contested in the twenty-first century especially in the United States, the
first polity to embrace them and put them into practice. In light of the re
emergence of explicitly religious politics, the current generation of university
students finds itself facing a situation in which the clash of religious ideas
and beliefs is a crucial factor shaping their contemporary world. Y oung
people today obviously need to be knowledgeable about the provenance and
meaning of these competing understandings of the world if they are to make
informed choices as citizens and as leaders. This makes relevant and impor
tant the study of the writings of the key Enlightenment thinkers who sought
to mobilize the power of reason and science as opposed to dogma and tradi
tion to solv e problems afflicting humanity and society. Rethinking the secu
lar tradition would likely then be welcomed by those who contributed to it as
a necessary means to prevent it from becoming merely a tradition or dogma.
The lnstitute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC)
is engaged in encouraging the publication of comparative and multidiscipli
nary teaching tools through "state of the art" readers on the themes of secu
larism, secular values, and the secular tradition, especially for undergraduate
teaching. The aim is to motívate students to connect with current ideological
and political debates but also to convince them that in order to do so they
need a proper grounding. Thus we first have to encourage them to engage in
relevant study through offering them suitable, quality educational materials.
This volume is dedicated to that goal. lt has its origins in a series of course
development grants initiated by ISSSC at Trinity College, Hartford and
Claremont McKenna College devoted to this theme of Secularism and the
Enlightenment, which then led to a national academic conference attended by
XI
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Xll Foreword
scholars from the fields of history, polit i cal science, sociology, and literature
held at Claremont McKenna College in the summer of 2008. Participants
were responsible for selecting a particular text and contTibuting an essay
discussing its importance and relevance to our overall theme. These texts and
essays form the core of this reader which was then expanded in light of the
conference discussions to incorporate a wider array ofthinkers.
Christopher Nadon, who led the currículum development project at Clare
mont McKenna College, undertook to assemble and edit this volume. He has
accomplished the task of organizing the essays so as to map out the inter
relationship of enlightenment ideas and secularism in relation to several dis
cursive and scholarly fields: the study of the natural world; human nature,
social order, law, and government; knowledge, literary and aesthetic criti
cism. Anyone who reads and studies these essays cannot but emerge as a
more fully educated and enlightened human being.
Barry A. Kosmin
Research Professor of Public Policy & Law and Director of the
Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at
Trinity College, Hartford.
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