Sarah Mortimer

De Veritate: Christianity and Human Nature

Grotius always claimed that De veritate was not a controversial work, but it was not as innocuous nor as straightforward as Grotius would have his reader believe. It was the theological counterpart to his groundbreaking De iure belli ac pacis and it offered a distinctive version of Christianity which could complement his system of natural and international law. Both works were built upon a particular conception of human nature and natural law, one which was not shared by many of Grotius’ contemporaries. In De veritate, Grotius emphasised that human beings could and should embrace Christianity voluntarily, in response to the revelation they found in the Scriptures. In this way, Grotius provided a way of understanding Christianity which did not appeal to any innate notion of God, and which removed the Christian religion from the sphere of nature and from the shared civic life which was built upon natural foundations. His aim was to shield civic life from the potentially destabilising effects of religious controversy and to promote Christian morality, but his ethical reading of Christianity brought with it important political and theological consequences. This article will show both the novelty, and the instability, of Grotius’ conception of Christianity.

Kingship and the ‘Apostolic Church,’ 1620-1650

Abstract During the 1640s, English divines came to place new weight on the role of the Apostles in founding the Christian Church. Earlier in the century, Archbishop Laud and his allies had tended to appeal to the Old Testament, and especially to the Jerusalem of King David, as a model for the English church. In Jerusalem, they argued, king and church had cooperated in perfect harmony, and they sought to emulate this situation. With the outbreak of civil war, however, Jerusalem no longer seemed such an appropriate model. Clerics and laymen alike had to think afresh about the relationship between church and state, and several episcopalian clergymen began to appeal instead to the church of the Apostles, seeing this as a template for a church which was independent of the state. This essay examines the concept of apostolicity as understood between 1620 and 1650, showing that it proved both fruitful and problematic for English theologians.

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes, Jeffrey Collins, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005) (xii+313pp., £58, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-926847-4).

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes, Jeffrey Collins, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2005) (xii+313pp., £58, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-926847-4). Leviathan After 350 Years, Tom Sorrel, Luc Foisneau (Eds.), Clarendon Press, Oxford (2004) (x+308pp., £45, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-926461-2). A Dialogue Between a Philosopher and a Student, of the Common Laws of England and Questions Relative to Hereditary Right, T Hobbes (Alan Cromartie, Quentin Skinner (Eds.)), Clarendon Press, Oxford, (2005) (1xxi+192pp., £65, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-823702-0).