Exposing the religious roots of our ostensibly godless age, Michael Allen Gillespie reveals in this landmark study that modernity is much less secular than conventional wisdom suggests. Taking as his starting point the collapse of the medieval world, Gillespie argues that from the very beginning moderns sought not to eliminate religion but to support a new view of religion and its place in human life. He goes on to explore the ideas of such figures as William of Ockham, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Descartes, and Hobbes, showing that modernity is best understood as a series of attempts to formulate a new and coherent metaphysics or theology.

CONTENTS:

Preface
Introduction

1          The Nominalist Revolution and the Origin of Modernity
2          Petrarch and the Invention of Individuality
3          Humanism and the Apotheosis of Man
4          Luther and the Storm of Faith
5          The Contradictions of Premodernity
6          Descartes’ Path to Truth
7          Hobbes’ Fearful Wisdom
8          The Contradictions of Enlightenment and the Crisis of Modernity

Epilogue
Notes
Index

AUTHOR:

Michael Allen Gillespie is professor of political science and philosophy at Duke University.