Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes Jeffrey R. Collins (Assistant Professor of History, Queen's University, Canada)

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes By Jeffrey R. Collins (Assistant Professor of History, Queen's University, Canada)

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes by Jeffrey R. Collins (Assistant Professor of History, Queen's University, Canada)


$66.79
Condition - New
Only 2 left

Summary

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes debunks the standard view of Hobbes as a royalist, and recovers his sympathies with the religious projects of the 1640s and 1650s. Culminating with an exploration of Hobbes's surprising sympathies with Cromwell, Jeffrey Collins offers a new interpretation of the religious significance of the English Revolution.

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes Summary

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes by Jeffrey R. Collins (Assistant Professor of History, Queen's University, Canada)

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes offers a revisionist interpretation of Thomas Hobbes's evolving response to the English Revolution. It rejects the prevailing understanding of Hobbes as a consistent, if idiosyncratic, royalist, and vindicates the contemporaneous view that the publication of Leviathan marked Hobbes's accommodation with England's revolutionary regime. In sustaining these conclusions, Professor Collins foregrounds the religious features of Hobbes's writings, and maintains a contextual focus on the broader religious dynamics of the English Revolution itself. Hobbes and the Revolution are both placed within the tumultuous historical process that saw the emerging English state coercively secure jurisdictional control over national religion and the corporate church. Seen in the light of this history, Thomas Hobbes emerges as a theorist who moved with, rather than against, the revolutionary currents of his age. The strongest claim of the book is that Hobbes was motivated by his deep detestation of clerical power to break with the Stuart cause and to justify the religious policies of England's post-regicidal masters, including Oliver Cromwell. Methodologically, Professor Collins supplements intellectual or linguistic contextual analysis with original research into Hobbes's biography, the prosopography of his associates, the reception of Hobbes's published works, and the nature of the English Revolution as a religious conflict. This multi-dimensional contextual approach produces, among other fruits: a new understanding of the political implications of Leviathan; an original interpretation of Hobbes's civil war history, Behemoth; a clearer picture of Hobbes's career during the neglected period of the 1650s; and a revisionist interpretation of Hobbes's reaction to the emergence of English republicanism. By presenting Thomas Hobbes as a political actor within a precisely defined political context, Professor Collins has recovered the significance of Hobbes's writings as artefacts of the English Revolution.

The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes Reviews

Hobbes studies have rarely been stronger. Dr Collins is properly respectful of the contribution made in recent years by three scholars of distinction, Qhentin Skinner, Noel Malcolm and Richard Tick. But Collins is his own man and has made, in his first book, a contribution to rival theirs. * William Lamont, English Historical Review *

Table of Contents

Introduction ; 1. Thomas Hobbes and the Uses of Christianity ; 2. Hobbes, the Long Parliament, and the Church of England ; 3. Rise of the Independents ; 4. Leviathan and the Cromwellian Revolution ; 5. Hobbes among the Cromwellians ; 6. The Independents and the 'Religion of Thomas Hobbes' ; 7. Response of the Exiled Church ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index

Additional information

NLS9780199237647
9780199237647
0199237646
The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes by Jeffrey R. Collins (Assistant Professor of History, Queen's University, Canada)
New
Paperback
Oxford University Press
2007-11-22
328
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes