Richard Bentley against atheists

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15633/sts.3012

Keywords:

Richard Bentley, the soul, infinity, randomness, gravity, theodicy

Abstract

In his Boyle lectures, Richard Bentley presented arguments designed to stop the growing tide of atheistic and deistic sentiment in England. He argued for the existence of the soul and the existence of God using arguments based on science of his time, in particular, the Newtonian physics. He argued against randomness as an explanatory principle and addressed the problem of theodicy.

References

Printed sources

Bentley R., Correspondence, London 1842.

Bentley R., Eight Sermons Preach’d at the Honourable Robert Boyle’s Lecture, London 17356.

Bentley R, Works, London 1838, vol. 3.

Blomer Th., A Full View of Dr Bentley’s Letter to the Lord Bishop of Ely, London 1710.

Cicero, De Natura Deorum, Cambridge 1967.

Locke J., An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London 1825

The Present State of Trinity College in Cambridg[e], in a Letter from Dr. Bentley, London 1710.

Elaboration

Connolly P.J., Metaphysics in Richard Bentley’s Boyle Lectures, “History of Philosophy Quarterly” 34 (2017), pp. 155–174.

Dahm J.J., Science and Apologetics in the Early Boyle Lectures, “Church History” 39 (1970), pp. 172–186.

Guerlac H., M.C. Jacob, Bentley, Newton, and Providence (The Boyle Lectures Once More), “Journal of the History of Ideas” 30 (1969), pp. 307–318.

Jebb C.R., Bentley, New York 1882.

Layton H., Observations upon a Sermon Intituled, A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul, Aliàs, Matter and Motion Cannot Think, [London 1692].

Monk J.H., The Life of Richard Bentley, London 1830.

Sheppard K., Anti-Atheism in Early Modern England 1580–1720, Boston 2015.

Williams J.C., Happy Violence: Bentley, Lucretius, and the Prehistory of Freethinking, “Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660–1700” 38 (2014), pp. 61–80.

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Published

2024-02-07

Issue

Vol. 30 (2023)

Section

Filozofia

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Adam Drozdek

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