The Cambridge Platonists

This volume contains selected discourses chosen to illustrate the tenets characteristic of the influential movement known as Cambridge Platonism.

C. A. Patrides (Author)

9780521299428, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 November 1980

376 pages
21.6 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.465 kg

This volume contains the selected discourses of four seventeenth-century philosophers, carefully chosen to illustrate the tenets characteristic of the influential movement known as Cambridge Platonism. Fundamental to their beliefs is the statement most clearly voiced by Benjamin Whichcote, their leader by common consent, that the spiritual is not opposed to the rational, nor Grace to nature. Religion is based on reason, even in the presence of 'mystery'. Free will and Grace are not mutually exclusive. The editor's comprehensive introduction delineates the main principles of the Cambridge Platonists, in the light of their heritage. It compares their attitude to contemporary thought, stressing their mistrust both of institutionalised religion and of the rising tide of materialism. The sermons are reprinted from the original texts and fully annotated with comparisons and references to a wide range of works. The editor also includes a useful list for further reading, biographical notes and a comprehensive index.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
A note on method
Biographical sketches
A reading list
1. 'The High and Aiery Hills of Platonisme': an introduction to the Cambridge Platonists
2. 'The Use of Reason in Matters of Religion' - Benjamin Whichcote
3. 'The Manifestation of Christ and the Deification of Man' - Benjamin Whichcote
4. 'The Unity of the Church maintained by sincere Christians' - Benjamin Whichcote
5. 'A Sermon preached before the House of Commons' - Ralph Cudworth
6. 'The True Way or Method of attaining to Divine Knowledge' - John Smith
7. 'The Excellency and Nobleness of True Religion' - John Smith
8. 'The Purification of a Christian Man's Soul' - Henry More
9. An Antidote against Atheism, Books I–II - Henry More
10. 'The Digression concerning the Plastick Life of Nature, or an Artificial, Orderly and Methodical Nature' - Ralph Cudworth
Appendix: selections from Whichcote's Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]