Hobbes on Heresy: Theology and Politics.

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Francesco Toto
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/4
Language Italian Pages 34 P. 597-628 File size 119 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2018-004003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The Article questions Hobbes’s political system focusing on his uses of the concept of heresy. First, it analyses the dual Hobbesian definition of heresy and the tensions implied in this duality. Secondly, it reconstructs the contention around the sovereign power and the right to distinguish between licit and illicit opinions related to these tensions. Finally, it retraces the way in which this contention is historically narrated in the Leviathan and subsequent works, clarifying the reasons for Hobbes’s partial justification of the crime of heresy. The aim is to bring to light aspects of Hobbes’s political thought that the interpretative canon tends to leave in the shadows, drawing attention not to the transparent and rational foundation of the state but to the opacity of the collective dynamics presiding over its genesis and dissolution; not to the juridical and unanimist logic of the covenant but to the political logic of division and conflict; and not to the triumphant but to the torn and challenged sovereignty.

Keywords: Hobbes, religion, heresy, sovereignty, political theology, resistance

  1. - Hobbes 1988: Thomas Hobbes, Scritti teologici, a cura di Arrigo Pacchi, traduzioni di Giueppe Invernizzi e Agostino Lupoli, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 1988.
  2. - AL: Thomas Hobbes, Appendix ad ‘Leviathan’, vedi Leviathan, sive de materia, forma et potestate civitatatis ecclesiasticae et civilis, in Opera Philosophica quæ latine scripsit omnia, 5 voll., studio et labore Gulielmi Molesworth, apud Joannem Bohn, Longman Brown Green et Longman, Londini, 1839-1845, vol. III, 1841, trad. it. Appendice al ‘Leviatano’ in Hobbes 1988.
  3. - Behem: Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth or the Long Parliament, ed. by Ferdinand Tönnies, Simpkin, Marshall, London, & Co., 1889, trad. it. Behemoth, a cura di Onofrio Nicastro, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1979 (d’ora in poi Behemoth).
  4. - DC: Thomas Hobbes, Elementorum philosophiæ sectio tertia, De Cive, in Opera Philosophica, cit., vol. II, 1839, trad. it. De Cive. Elementi filosofici sul cittadino, a cura di Tito Magri, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 1992.
  5. - DDC: Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England, in The English Works, ed. by Molesworth, W., John Bohn, Longman Brown Green and Longman, London, 11 voll., 1839-45, vol. VI, 1840, trad. it. a cura di Norberto Bobbio in Elementi filosofici sul cittadino; Dialogo tra un filosofo e uno studioso del diritto comune d’ Inghilterra, UTET, Torino, 1959.
  6. - EL: Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, ed. by F. Tönnies, Simpkin, Marshall & Co, London, 1889, trad. it. a cura di Arrigo Pacchi, Elementi di legge naturale e politica, Milano, Sansoni, 2004.
  7. - Lev: Leviathan: or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical, and Civil, in The English Works, cit., vol. III, 1839, trad. it. Leviatano, a cura di Arrigo Pacchi, con la collaborazione di Agostino Lupoli, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 1989.
  8. - NSE: An Historical Narration Concerning Heresy and the Punishment Thereof, in English Works, cit., vol. 4, 1840, trad. it. Narrazione storica sull’eresia e la relativa pena, in Hobbes 1988.
  9. - RCL: An Answer to Bishop Bramhall’s Book, called “The Catching of the Leviathan” ¸ in English Works, cit., vol. 4, 1840, trad it. Risposta al libro pubblicato dal dott. Bramhall, intitolato ‘La cattura del Leviatano’, in Hobbes 1988.
  10. - SE: Historia ecclesiastica carmine elegiaco concinnata, in Opera philosophica, cit., vol. 5, 1845, trad. it., Storia ecclesiastica narrata in forma di carmine elegiaco, in Hobbes 1988. - Boyd 2001: Richard Boyd, Hobbes and the Perils of Pluralism, «The Journal of Politics », LXIII (2001), 2, pp. 392-413.
  11. - Brandon 2007: Eric Brandon, The Coherence of Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’, Continuum, London 2007.
  12. - Burgess 1994: Glenn Burgess, On Hobbesian Resistance Theory, «Political Studies», XLII (1994), 1, pp. 62-83.
  13. - Cohen 2002: Andrew I. Cohen, Warmongers, Martyrs, and Madmen versus the Hobbesian Laws of Nature, «Canadian Journal of Philosophy», XXXII (2002), 4, pp. 561-586.
  14. - Collins 2005: Jeffrey R. Collins, The Allegiance of Thomas Hobbes, Oxford UP, Oxford 2005.
  15. - Collins 2013: Jeffrey R. Collins, Thomas Hobbes, Heresy, and the Theological Project of ‘Leviathan’, «Hobbes Studies», XXVI (2013), pp. 6-33.
  16. - Creppell 2009: Ingrid Creppell, The Democratic Element in Hobbes’s ‘Behemoth’, in Tomaz Mastnak, (ed.), Hobbes’s Behemoth: Religion and Democracy, Imprint Academic, Exeter 2009, pp. 241-268.
  17. - Dubos 2013: Nicolas Dubos, L’histoire civile, in Jauffrey Berthier et al. (éds.), Lectures de Hobbes, Ellipses, Paris 2013, pp. 389-433.
  18. - Dubos 2013b: Nicolas Dubos, L’histoire sacrée, in Jauffrey Berthier et al. (éds.), Lectures de Hobbes, cit, pp. 435-469.
  19. - Fabbri 2006: Enrica Fabbri, Immaginazione, religione e politica in Thomas Hobbes, «Isonomia», (2006), pp. 1-25.
  20. - Fabbri 2009: Enrica Fabbri, Roberto Bellarmino e Thomas Hobbes. Teologie politiche a confronto, Aracne, Roma 2009.
  21. - Farnesi Camellone 2013: Mauro Farnesi Camellone, Indocili soggetti. La politica teologica di Thomas Hobbes, Quodlibet, Macerata 2013.
  22. - Fiaschi 2013: Giovanni Fiaschi, The Power of Words: Political and Theological Science in Thomas Hobbes, «Hobbes Studies», XXVI (2013), pp. 34-64.
  23. - Flathman 1992: Richard E. Flathman, Willful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice, Cornell UP, Ithaca 1992.
  24. - Foisneau 1997: Luc Foisneau, Obéissance politique et mortalité humaine selon Hobbes, in Luc Foisneau (éd.), Politique, droit et théologie chez Bodin, Grotius et Hobbes, Kimé, Paris 1997, 283-305.
  25. - Foisneau 2000: Luc Foisneau, Hobbes et la toute-puissance de Dieu, PUF, Paris 2000.
  26. - Foisneau e Wright 2004: Luc Foisneau e George Wright (a cura di), Nuove prospettive
  27. critiche sul ‘Leviatano’ di Hobbes, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2004
  28. - Giancotti 1996: Emilia Giancotti Studi su Hobbes e Spinoza, a cura di Daniela Bostrenghi e Cristina Santinelli, Bibliopolis, Napoli 1996.
  29. - Hoekstra 2004: Kinch Hoekstra, Disarming the Prophets. Thomas Hobbes and Predictive Power, in Foisneau e Wright 2004, pp. 97-153.
  30. - Hood 1964: Francis C. Hood, The Divine Politics of Thomas Hobbes, Oxford UP, London 1964.
  31. - Izzo 2005: Francesca Izzo, Forme della modernità. Antropologia, politica e teologia in T. Hobbes, Roma-Bari, Laterza 2005.
  32. - Johnston 1986: David Johnston, The Rethoric of ‘Leviathan’, Princeton UP, Princeton 1986.
  33. - Johnston 1989: David Johnston, Hobbes’s Mortalism, «History of Political Thought », X (1989), 4, pp. 647-663.
  34. - Koselleck 1984: Reinhart Koselleck, Kritik und Krise. Eine Studie zur Pathogenese der bürgerlichen Welt, Karl Alber, Freiburg-Münich, 1959, trad. it. di G. Panzieri, Critica illuminista e crisi della società borghese, Il Mulino, Bologna 1984.
  35. - Lessay 1988: Franck Lessay, Souveranité et légitimité chez Hobbes, PUF, Paris 1988.
  36. - Lessay 1993: Franck Lessay, La Christologie de Hobbes: le soupçon du socinianisme, in Guido Canziani e Yves Charles Zarka (a cura di), L’interpretazione nei secoli XVI e XVII, FrancoAngeli, Milano 1993, pp. 549-564.
  37. - Lessay 2000: Franck Lessay, Hobbes and Sacred History, in G.A.J. (John) Rogers and Tom Sorell (eds.), Hobbes and History, Routledge, London 2000, pp. 146-158.
  38. - Lessay 2004: Franck Lessay, Hobbes: une christologie politique?, in Foisneau e Wright 2004, pp. 51-72.
  39. - Lessay 2004b: Franck Lessay, Hobbes’s Protestantism, in Tom Sorrel and Luc Foisneau (eds.), ‘Leviathan’ After 350 Years, Oxford UP, Oxford 2004, pp. 265-294.
  40. - Lloyd 1992: Sharon A. Lloyd, Ideals and Interests in Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’: The Power of Mind over Matter, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1992.
  41. - Lupoli 2016: Agostino Lupoli, Hobbes and Religion without Theology, in Aloysius P. Martinich and Kinch Hoekstra (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes, Oxford UP, Oxford 2016, pp. 451-478.
  42. - Magri 1982: Tito Magri, Saggio su Thomas Hobbes. Gli elementi della politica, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1982.
  43. - Martel 2007: James R. Martel, Subverting the Leviathan: Reading Thomas Hobbes as a Radical Democrat, Columbia UP, New York 2007.
  44. - Martinich 1992: Aloysius P. Martinich, The Two Gods of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Religion and Politics, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1992.
  45. - Martinich 2005: Aloysius P. Martinich, Hobbes, Routledge, New York 2005.
  46. - Montag 1999: Warren Montag, Bodies, Masses, Power: Spinoza and His Contemporaries, Verso, London 1999.
  47. - Moreau 1989: Pierre-François Moreau, Hobbes. Philosophie, science, religion, PUF, Paris 1989.
  48. - Moreau 2006: Pierre-François Moreau, È legittima la resistenza nello Stato?, «Quaderni Materialisti», V (2006), pp. 49-62.
  49. - Olsthoorn 2018: Johan Olsthoorn, The Theocratic ‘Leviathan’: Hobbes’s Arguments for the Identity of Church and State, in Robin Douglass and Laurens van Apeldoorn (eds.), Hobbes on Politics and Religion, Oxford UP, Oxford (forthcoming)
  50. - Pacchi 1988: Arrigo Pacchi, Introduzione a Hobbes 1988
  51. - Pacchi 1998: Arrigo Pacchi, Scritti Hobbesiani (1978-1990), a cura di Agostino Lupoli, FrancoAngeli, Milano 1998.
  52. - Paganini 2004: Gianni Paganini, Hobbes and the “continental” tradition of skepticism, in José R.M. Neto and Richard H. Popkin (eds.), Skepticism in Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Thought: New Interpretations, Humanity Books, Amherst 2004, pp. 65-105.
  53. - Patapan 2017: Haig Patapan, Politics of Immortality: Hobbes on ‘Humane and Divine Politiques’, «Political Theology», XVIII (2017), 1, pp. 60-77.
  54. - Pocock 1972: John G. A. Pocock, Time, History and Eschatology in the Thouhgt of Thomas Hobbes, in Id., Politics, Language and Time, Matheun&Co Ltd., London 1972.
  55. - Polin 1980: Raymond Polin, Hobbes, Dieu et les hommes, PUF, Paris 1980.
  56. - Raimondi 2013: Fabio Raimondi, Machiavelli’s ‘Discorsi’ and Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’: Religion as Ideology, in Alessandro Arienzo and Alessandra Petrina (eds.), Machiavellian Encounters in Tudor and Stuart England. Literary and Political Influences from the Reformation to the Restoration, Ashgate, Farnham 2013, pp. 173-184.
  57. - Ryan 2012: Alan Ryan, Hobbes, Toleration, and the Inner Life, in Id. The Making of Modern Liberalism, Princeton UP, Princeton 2012, pp. 159-185.
  58. - Schmitt 1986: Carl Schmitt, Scritti su Hobbes, a cura di Carlo Galli, Giuffrè, Milano1986.
  59. - Sheehan 2016: Jonathan Sheehan, Thomas Hobbes, D.D.: Theology, Orthodoxy, and History, «The Journal of Modern History», LXXXVIII (2016), 2, pp. 249-274.
  60. - Sherlock 1982: Richard Sherlock, The Theology of Leviathan: Hobbes on Religion, «Interpretation», X (1982), 1, pp. 43-60.
  61. - Slomp 2000: Gabriella Slomp, Hobbes and the Political Philosophy of Glory, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2000.
  62. - Slomp 2007: Gabriella Slomp, Hobbes on Glory and the Civil Strife, in Patricia Springborg (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 2007, pp. 181-198.
  63. - Sorgi 1989: Giuseppe Sorgi, Quale Hobbes? Dalla paura alla rappresentanza, FrancoAngeli, Milano 1989.
  64. - Springborg 1975: Patricia Springborg, Leviathan and the Problem of Ecclesiastical Authority, «Political Theory», III (1975), 3, pp. 289-303.
  65. - Springborg 1994: Patricia Springborg, Hobbes, Heresy, and the Historia Ecclesiastica, «Journal of the History of Ideas», LV (1994), 4, pp. 553-571.
  66. - Springborg 1995: Patricia Springborg, Thomas Hobbes and Cardinal Bellarmine: Leviathan and ‘the Ghost of the Roman empire’, «History of Political Thought», XVI (1995), 4, pp. 503-531.
  67. - Springborg 1996: Patricia Springborg, Hobbes on Religion, in Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, cit., pp. 346-380.
  68. - Springborg 2008: Patricia Springborg, Introduction to T. Hobbes, Historia ecclesiastica, critical edition, including text, translation, introduction, commentary and notes by P. Springborg, P. Stablein, P. Wilson, Paris, Honoré Champion 2008, pp. 20-267.
  69. - Sommerville 1992: Johann P. Sommerville, Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context, Macmillan, Basingstoke 1992.
  70. - Sreedhar 2010: Susanne Sreedhar, Hobbes on Resistance: Defying the Leviathan, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 2010.
  71. - Strauss 2003: Leo Strauss, Die Religionskritik Spinozas als Grundlage seiner Bibelwissenschaft. Untersuchungen zu Spinozas Theologisch-politischen Traktat, in Id.
  72. Gesammelte Schriften, vol. I, Metzler, Stuttgart-Weimar, 1996, trad. it. La critica della religione in Spinoza, a cura di Riccardo Caporali, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2003, pp. 79-80.
  73. - Strauss 1977: Leo Strauss, Hobbes’ politische Wissenschaft in ihrer Genesis, in Id. Gesammelte Schriften, cit., vol. III, 2008, trad it. in Che cos’è la filosofia politica? Scritti su Hobbes e altri saggi, a cura di Pier Franco Taboni, Argalia, Urbino 1977.
  74. - Terrel 1994: Jean Terrel, Hobbes. Matérialisme et politique, Vrin, Paris 1994.
  75. M.P. Thompson, Hobbes on Heresy, in John C. Laursen (ed.), Histories of Heresy in Early Modern Europe: For and Against, and Beyond Persecution and Toleration, Palgrave, New York 2002, pp. 77-100.
  76. - Toto 2015: Francesco Toto, Concezione razionale e concezioni immaginarie della giustizia in Thomas Hobbes, «Isonomia», 2105, pp. 1-34. - Toto 2016a: Francesco Toto, Individuo, potere e relazione in Thomas Hobbes, «La società degli individui», (2016) 55, pp. 143-158.
  77. - Toto 2016b: Francesco Toto, Hobbes e il riconoscimento. Antropologia, morale e politica, «Consecutio rerum», (2016) 1, pp. 9-32.
  78. - Tralau 2011: Johan Tralau, Hobbes contra liberty of conscience, «Political theory», XXXIX (2011), 1, pp. 58-84.
  79. - Tuck 1990: Richard Tuck, Hobbes and Locke on Political Toleration, in Mary G. Dietz (ed.), Thomas Hobbes and Political Theory, UP of Kansas, Lawrence, 1990, pp. 153-171.
  80. - Tuck 1993: Richard Tuck. Philosophy and government 1572-1651, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1993.
  81. - Tuck 1993b: Richard Tuck, The Civil Religion of Thomas Hobbes, in Nicholas Phillipson and Quentin Skinner (ed.), Political Discourse in Early Modern Britain, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1993, pp. 120-138.
  82. - Vaughan 2007: Geoffrey M. Vaughan, Behemoth Teaches Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Political Education, Lexington Books, Lanahm 2007.
  83. - Vialatoux 1935: Joseph Vialatoux, La Cité de Hobbes. Théorie de l’État totalitaire. Essai sur la conception naturaliste de la civilisation, Lecoffre et Gabalda, Paris 1935.
  84. - Warrender 1974: Howard Warrender, The Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes: His Theory of Obligation, Oxford, Clarendon, 1957, trad. it. Il pensiero politico di Hobbes, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1974.
  85. - Weber 2008: Dominique Weber, Hobbes et l’histoire du salut. Ce que le Christ fait à Léviathan, PUPS, Paris, 2008.
  86. - Wright 2006: George Wright, Religion, Politics and Thomas Hobbes, Springer, Dordrecht 2006.
  87. - Zagorin 2009: Perez Zagorin, Hobbes and the Law of Nature, Princeton UP, Princeton 2009.

Francesco Toto, Hobbes e l’eresia: teologia e politica in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 4/2018, pp 597-628, DOI: 10.3280/SF2018-004003