Christian Antiquity and the Anglican Reception of John Locke’s Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, 1707–1730

Abstract

The study of John Locke’s theological thought has yet to be combined with emerging historical research, pioneered by Jean-Louis Quantin, into the apologetic uses of Christian antiquity in the Restoration Church of England. This article will address this historiographical lacuna by making two related arguments. First, I will contend that Locke’s Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul (1705–1707) marked a definitive shift in his critique of the appeal to Christian antiquity. Prior to 1700, Locke had largely contested these references to the precedent of the early Christian Church by making a narrowly philosophical case against arguments from authority in general. However, the controversial reception of Locke’s theological writings in the 1690s, compelled him to develop historical and methodological arguments in the Paraphrase against the witness of Christian antiquity. Secondly, I will argue that Locke’s repudiation of the witness of Christian antiquity was the primary motivation for the diverse responses to the Paraphrase by early eighteenth-century Anglican writers, such as Robert Jenkin, Daniel Whitby, William Whiston, Winch Holdsworth and Catharine Cockburn.

The General Resurrection and Early Modern Natural Philosophers: A Preliminary Survey

“…In spite of the care Locke took to defend, philosophically and theologically, his claims about the irrelevance of ever‐changing “flesh and blood” to determining the identity of a person, Locke was repeatedly attacked for failing to support the doctrine of the resurrection of the same body (Chaterjee 2021). In his Reply to the Bishop of Worcester's Answer to His Second Letter (1699), part of his exchange with Edward Stillingfleet, this was the main bone of contention.…”