Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Editions and AbbreviationsIntroduction
Chapter One. “Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy”
Chapter Two. Hobbes’s Natural Philosophy
Chapter Three. Religion and Theology I: “Of Religion”
Chapter Four. Religion and Theology II: Hobbes’s Natural Theology
Chapter Five. Religion and Theology III: Hobbes’s Confrontation with the Bible
Chapter Six. Hobbes’s Political Philosophy I: Man and Morality
Chapter Seven. Hobbes’s Political Philosophy II: The Hobbesian CommonwealthAppendix. The Engraved Title Page of Leviathan
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Devin Stauffer is associate professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Plato’s Introduction to the Question of Justice and The Unity of Plato’s “Gorgias.”

Reviews

“A brilliant and sustained reflection on Hobbes’s philosophic, theological, and political-philosophic attempt to dispel the ‘Kingdom of Darkness.’ Stauffer clarifies and assesses the arguments that led Hobbes to his extraordinary and highly influential attempt to establish human society on a radically new, ‘enlightened,’ secular basis. This is a vitally important book, not only for those who wish to understand the true relation between Hobbes’s natural science and his political science but for anyone who wishes to understand the modern world.”
*Timothy Burns, Baylor University*

“The book's provocative and welcome conceit is that when we study the endlessly fascinating intricacies of Hobbes's seventeenth-century arguments, we are doing more than diving into a particular historical moment or following the back and forth of a particular language game; we are evaluating the justifications for our way of life.”
*The Review of Politics*

“Stauffer offers a brilliant and controversial esoteric interpretation of Hobbes’s attack on religion, and relates it to Hobbes’s metaphysics, natural philosophy, and politics/ethics. . . . Stauffer’s book should be read by Hobbes scholars and by early modern specialists more generally, as well as anyone interested in history of philosophy in relation to metaphysics, religion, science, politics and ethics.”
*Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews*

"For scholars of Hobbes looking for a serious argument that he is best seen as the patron saint of secular enlightenment, this is the book to read."
*Hobbes Studies*