The Cambridge Platonists and Early Modern Philosophy

Inventing the Philosophy of Religion

Samuel M. Kaldas

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781009426947
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Filosofia delle religioni

Often neglected by historians today, the seventeenth-century philosophers known as the Cambridge Platonists were recognised in their time as some of the most influential and controversial philosophers in England. Whereas most studies of the Cambridge Platonists have discussed their later careers, this book focuses on their early, formative years at Cambridge during the English Civil Wars. Samuel M. Kaldas explores how the Cambridge Platonists addressed issues central to philosophy of religion as we know it today through their engagement with early seventeenth-century religious controversies about predestination, the character and nature of God, and the role of reason in religion. His study serves as an accessible introduction to both the Cambridge Platonists, and to English religious controversies that contributed to the birth of the modern philosophy of religion. At the same time, Kaldas provides context for and fresh insights into the Cambridge Platonists' intellectual development and the coherence of their thought.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Note on the Text
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: The Cambridge Platonists and Philosophy of Religion
• Part I The Origins of Cambridge Platonism
• Part II Rival Conceptions of God and Goodness: The Platonic Anti-Calvinism of the Cambridge Platonists
• Part III The Religious Epistemology of the Cambridge Platonists
• References
• Index