Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment: The English and Scottish Experience

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Michael Hunter (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment

The English and Scottish Experience

Michael Hunter (Birkbeck College, University of London)

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English

Cambridge University Press
27 July 2023

Agnosticism & atheism; History of ideas

Anxiety about the threat of atheism was rampant in the early modern period, yet fully documented examples of openly expressed irreligious opinion are surprisingly rare. England and Scotland saw only a handful of such cases before 1750, and this book oﬀers a detailed analysis of three of them. Thomas Aikenhead was executed for his atheistic opinions at Edinburgh in 1697; Tinkler Ducket was convicted of atheism by the Vice-Chancellor's court at the University of Cambridge in 1739; whereas Archibald Pitcairne's overtly atheist tract, Pitcairneana, though evidently compiled very early in the eighteenth century, was ﬁrst published only in 2016. Drawing on these, and on the better-known apostacy of Christopher Marlowe and the Earl of Rochester, Michael Hunter argues that such atheists showed real 'assurance' in publicly promoting their views. This contrasts with the private doubts of Christian believers, and this book demonstrates that the two phenomena are quite distinct, even though they have sometimes been wrongly conﬂated.

By: Michael Hunter (Birkbeck College University of London)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 490g
ISBN: 9781009268776
ISBN 10: 1009268775
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 27 July 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. The Problem of 'Atheism' in Early Modern England; 3. Atheism among the Godly: The Covert History of Religious Doubt; 4. 'This degenerate Age… so miserably over-run with Scepticism and Infidelity': The Culture of Atheism after 1660; 5. 'Aikenhead the Atheist': The Context and Consequences of Articulate Irreligion in the late Seventeenth Century; 6. An Atheist Text by Archibald Pitcairne: Introduction to Pitcairneana; 7. The Text of Pitcairneana: Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Eng 1114; 8. The Trial of Tinkler Ducket: Atheism and Libertinism in Eighteenth-century England; Appendix; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Michael Hunter is Emeritus Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is well known for his publications on Robert Boyle and on the early Royal Society and its milieu. His most recent book is The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment (2020).