Thomas Hobbes, Power and Theology

Abstract

Given the seditious and, at the same time, ineradicable nature of religion, it is up to the political scientist to suggest to the sovereign how to action its two components (the «errour of reasoning» concerning invisible spirits and «trusting to other men») in order to give them a form that is harmless to the state. For this purpose, Hobbes proposes a radical reform of worship capable of restraining it within the limits of that «Reason dictated to be done by the weak to the more potent men» and, therefore, cleaned of all alleged supernatural, metaphysical and mysterious aspects superimposed on it by theologians.