The Enthusiastical Concerns of Dr. Henry More: Religious Meaning and the Psychology of Delusion

265 Pages·1997·27.75 MB·English

by  Daniel Clifford Fouke

BRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 71
THE ENTHUSIASTICAL CONCERNS
OF DR. HENRY MORE
Religious Meaning and the Psychology of Delusion
BY
DANIEL FOUKE
E J. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KÖLN
1997
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fouke, Daniel Clifford, 1952-
The enthusiastical concerns of Dr. Henry More : religious meaning
and the psychology of delusion / by Daniel Fouke.
p. cm. — (Brill's studies in intellectual history, ISSN
0920-8607 ;v. 71)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004106006 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. More, Henry, 1614-1687—Contributions in controversial
literature against enthusiasm. 2. Enthusiasm—Religious aspects-
-Christianity—History of doctrines—17th century. I. Title.
II. Series.
BR114.F68 1996
274\2Ό7—dc20 96-20133
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Fouke, Daniel:
The enthusiastical concerns of Dr. Henry More : religious
meaning and the psychology of delusion / by Daniel Fouke. -
Leiden ; New York ; Köln : Brill, 1996
(Brill's studies in intellectual history ; Vol.71)
ISBN 90-04-10600-6
NE:GT
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 10600 6
© Copyright 1997 by E J. Bull, Leiden, The Netherlands
All nghts reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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Authonzation to photocopy items for internal or personal
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Fees are subject to change.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
To my parents, Durhl and Evelyn Fouke, without whom nothing.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. A Brief Sketch of More's Life and Writings 1
1.2. The Rise of Anti-enthusiasm 5
1.3. Methodological Problems for the Historian of Philos
ophy 9
CHAPTER TWO. THEORY, NARRATIVE, AND RELIGIOUS EXPERI
ENCE IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL POEMS 18
2.1. The Construction of a Spiritual Crisis 18
2.2. The Philosophical Poems: Their Linguistic Modes and
Theoretical Order 22
2.3. Deity 27
2.4. Cosmogonie Processes: Creation, Emanation, and
God's Body 29
2.5. The Human Soul 35
2.6. Normativity 39
2.7. Religious Meaning and the Interpretation of Expe
rience 41
2.8. Conclusion 47
CHAPTER THREE. THOMAS VAUGHAN AND THE ALCHEMICAL
WORLD 50
3.1. Introduction 50
3.2. Thomas Vaughan on the Deity and Cosmogenesis 53
3.3. Spirit and Matter 62
3.4. Alchemical Psychology 68
3.5. Normativity 71
3.6. Imagination, the Passions, and Power 86
3.7. Alchemical Language 91
3.8. Conclusion 94
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR. ALCHEMY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ENTHUSIASM 96
4.1. Introduction 96
4.2. The Religious Meaning of Human Experience 103
4.2.1. Deification and the Meaning of the Passions 104
4.2.2. Religious Qualities of the Natural Order 106
4.3. Linguistic Ideals 113
4.4. The Diagnosis and Cure of Enthusiasm 119
4.5. Conclusion 124
CHAPTER FIVE. POLITICAL ENTHUSIASM: THE QUAKERS AND RELI
GIOUS RADICALISM 130
5.1. Introduction 130
5.2. Religious Doctrines and the Participatory Language
of the Quakers 133
5.2.1. Implicit Metaphysical Models 133
5.2.2. The Meaning and Use of Biblical Narratives 135
5.2.3. Inner Light 136
5.3. The Religious Experience of the Quakers 138
5.4. Social Action: Becoming Messengers and Prophets... 140
5.5. The Meaning of the Body and the Passions 143
5.6. Public Reaction to the Quakers 147
5.7. More's Criticism of the Quakers 151
5.7.1. The Meaning of Scriptural Narratives 152
5.7.2. Reason, Moral Psychology, and the Inner Light 156
5.8. Physiology, Moral Psychology, and Insanity 167
5.9. True Enthusiasm and Melancholy Enthusiasm 170
5.10. More and Conway 175
5.11. Conclusion 177
CHAPTER SIX. PNEUMATOLOGY AND MECHANICAL ENTHUSIASM.... 181
6.1. Introduction 181
6.2. More's Assessments of Descartes 184
6.3. Pneumatology and Mechanical Enthusiasm 187
6.4. Pneumatology and the Natural Order 192
6.4.1. The Concept of Spirit 194
6.4.2. Emanation and the Vital Union of Spirits with Matter 197
CONTENTS IX
6.4.3. Pneumatology and Divine Governance: The Spirit of
Nature and the Providential Order 204
6.4.4. Pneumatology and the Organic Universe 208
6.5. Conclusion 215
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION 219
Bibliography 235
Index 255
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The bulk of research for this book was made possible by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities, to whom I wish
to express my thanks. Additional support was provided by the Uni
versity of Dayton through summer grants.
My debts to two scholars will be obvious. Portions of Chapter 2
build extensively upon the work of Robert Crocker in his unpub
lished dissertation, An Intellectual Biography of Henry More (1614-87),
which contains the most complete examination of More's Philo
sophical Poems. Chapter 6 draws repeatedly upon the pioneering
work of Alan Gabbey. Alan Gabbey's presentations on Henry More
at a summer workshop on early modern philosophy sponsored by
the National Endowment for the Humanities were also responsible
for inspiring my initial interest in Henry More.
I also wish to thank Dan Garber and Alan Gabbey for looking
over earlier versions of this manuscript and for their encourage
ment. I also owe a large debt to Roger Ariew whose advice and
encouragement often gave me direction. Thanks, too, to my wife
Barbara for her careful reading of the final version of the manu
scripts and her helpful suggestions.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. A BRIEF SKETCH OF MORE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS
Henry More was born to Calvinist gentry in October 1614.1 His edu
cation was directed by his uncle, Gabriel More, who was a Fellow
of Christ's College in Cambridge. More entered Eton at the age of
14 and Christ's College in 1631, where he studied under Robert
Gell. According to More's description of his early religious life, even
from a young age he was involved in religious controversy. He tells
of conflicts with his uncle over the doctrine of predestination, and
of how disenchantment with scholastic metaphysics led him to a
study of Platonic and mystical literature and, eventually, to a reli
gious experience, which (as I will argue later) was one of the most
formative events of his life. It was to express the character of this
experience that he composed his first published work, Psychodia
Platonica, a philosophical poem which first appeared in 1642.
In 1639 More was appointed a Master of Arts and a deacon. In
1641 he was ordained and also assumed a Fellowship vacated by
Robert Gell2 and began taking students. He remained at Christ's
College for the rest of his life. More seems to have been deeply
influenced by Gell and Joseph Mede,3 who were both interested in
ancient Greek mystical philosophy. Gell believed in the per-
1 This biographical sketch draws primarily upon Ward 1710 and Crocker 1986
and 1990c which should be consulted for a more detailed account.
2 Robert Gell (1595-1665) graduated from Christ's College (BA 1617-8, MA 1621,
BD 1628, DD 1641), and was a Fellow from 1623. Chaplain to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, he frequently preached before the University of Cambridge. He was
interested in astrology and preached twice before the Society of Astrologers. At his
death he was rector of Saint Mary (DNB).
3 Joseph Mede (1586-1638) was admitted to Christ's College in 1602, complet
ed his MA in 1610, and was elected Fellow in 1613. A correspondent of Samuel
Hartlib, his posthumous fame rests on his interpretation of the Apocalypse which
assumes that the various visions described in that book form a chronological
sequence, and that the "day" of judgment is preceded by the resurrection of the
martyrs and their admission to heaven, and extends over a period of 1,000 years
{DNB).
2 CHAPTER ONE
fectibility of the soul—a view which became central to More's
account of human deification.
Early in his career More also became closely associated with
important scientific reformers. He was a friend of Samuel Hartlib,4
through whom he became acquainted in the 1640's with Robert
Boyle and John Beale. It was at Hartlib's urging that, in 1648, More
entered into correspondence with Descartes, whose lofty medita
tive approach to natural philosophy More preferred over the "slib-
ber-sauce" empirical methods of the experimentalists.
In 1650, eight years after the publication of Psychodia Platonica,
More entered a polemical exchange with the alchemist Thomas
Vaughan. More accused Vaughan of enthusiasm, and with this
attack launched an anti-enthusiastical crusade to discredit the more
strident and radical reformers on moral, religious, and medical
grounds. More's first systematic exposition of his philosophy in
prose was An Antidote Against Athéisme (1653), which was followed
by Conjectura Cabbalistica (1653), Enthusiasmus Tnumphatus (1653),
and The Immortality of the Soul (1659). These works were revised and
republished together, along with his correspondence with Des
cartes, in A Collection of Philosophical Wntings (1662). In 1671, More
published Enchindion Metaphysicum, which he originally intended
to be the first part of a larger work in which he would set forth his
complete metaphysical system. But More changed his mind when,
in 1679, he published his Opera Omnia, a work in three volumes,
the second volume of which was an expanded version of the Col
lection in Latin. More was apparently satisfied that the Opera Omnia
completed the system he had begun to set out in the Enchindion
Metaphysicum.
In the Enchindion Metaphysicum More extended accusations of
"enthusiasm" to strict mechanists who attempted to explain natur
al phenomena without recourse to spiritual causes. How far he had
moved away from his initial fascination with Descartes is apparent
from his lengthy attack on the explanatory sufficiency of the
Mechanical Philosophy and from the fuller development of his
4 Samuel Hartlib (d. 1670) was the son of a Polish merchant. In 1628 he moved
to England where he became a friend of Milton. Although by profession a mer
chant, he introduced the writings of Comenius to England and published many
pamphlets on education and husbandry. Milton's treatise on education was
addressed to Hartlib (DNB). For Hartlib's importance to English Chemistry see
Wilkenson 1968 and 1970.