Spiritual or Secular? On Hobbes’s Theory of Church-State Relation
Author: Yu-Kang Liang, Among his numerous works
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Among his numerous works, Thomas Hobbes’s writings concerning religion receive relatively little attention. This seems an odd ignorance since he was getting more and more attentive to this subject in his later works. In recent years Hobbes’s conception of religion has been taken more seriously for its role in his whole theory. A. P. Martinich holds a deontological interpretation of Hobbes’ theory that the power of the sovereign comes from God’s command. Rather, Jeffery Collins contends that the essence of Hobbes’ idea about religion lies in the church-state relation, which dominates his allegiance to the sovereign. Contrary to these opinions, I argue that Hobbes religion is an alternative description of his civil science. The reason why he was doing so consists in his belief that the pervasive discourse in contemporary England is rather religious than rational. To promote his civil science, it is necessary to wrap his theory with a Christian disguise.