Religion, science and moral philosophy in the Huguenot enlightenment : Jean Henri Samuel Formey and the Berlin Academy /

Religion, Science and Moral Philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment makes two significant contributions to existing scholarship on the Enlightenment. Firstly, as an author, journalist, translator and inexhaustible letter writer, the Huguenot pastor and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Science, Sa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Grosse, Annelie (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Liverpool : Published by Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, [2024].
Series:Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 2024:02.
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Description
Summary:Religion, Science and Moral Philosophy in the Huguenot Enlightenment makes two significant contributions to existing scholarship on the Enlightenment. Firstly, as an author, journalist, translator and inexhaustible letter writer, the Huguenot pastor and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Science, Samuel Formey, was involved in most of the philosophical debates in the European Republic of Letters during the second half of the eighteenth century. This is the first monograph dedicated solely to Formey's multifaceted work. Secondly, the book recasts the concept of Religious Enlightenment by considering Formey as a pastor-philosopher whose concept of philosophy included revealed religion instead of perpetuating the image of him as an 'enemy of Enlightenment' who opposed the philosophy of his time by referring to religion. More precisely, the book explores the notion of the compatibility between reason and faith in Formey's thought on the existence of God, the freedom of will, divine providence and other questions relating to religion and metaphysics. It shows how Formey altered his portrayal of the relation between reason and faith depending on the genre and immediate context of his writings. The broader contextualization of Formey's arguments in German rationalist philosophy and Calvinist theology unveils not only the overlaps between Wolffianism and eighteenth-century Calvinism but also gives an impression of the diversity of the thought of Huguenot pastors and philosophers during the Enlightenment.
Physical Description:xiii, 336 pages ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-324) and index.
ISBN:9781837644032
1837644039