The politics of the confessional imagination, from Calvin to Hobbes

Abstract

In this dissertation, I consider the nature and application of theories of the imagination by, especially English, Protestants, over the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. I make four significant observations. First, I argue that English Protestant philosophical treatments of the imagination were largely continuous with the earlier mediaeval, scholastic tradition, despite advances in anatomy and the rediscovery of new classical sources. Second, I argue that English Protestants developed a distinctive (but not original) theological discourse reflecting on the effects of the Fall on the human imagination. Third, I argue that despite a robust commitment to predestination, English Protestants by no means repudiated the possibility for specifically human methods of ameliorating the fallen imagination. Finally, I contend that this theological reflection on the fallen imagination was widespread, colouring even non-theological discourses, such as (nominally) secular writing on natural philosophy, ethics and politics.

I explore these arguments over three large sections. First, I consider primarily philosophical reflections on the nature of the imagination, surveying works in the Aristotelian scientia de anima tradition, as well as early modern medicine. I also treat the revival of ancient Stoic theories of the imagination and their early modern promoters. Finally, I close off this section with an examination of the philosophy of Francis Bacon. In the second section, I turn to theological considerations. I first discuss the connection between idolatry and the imagination canvassed in Protestant theology and its sources in scholasticism and parallels in the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church. I then introduce the pessimistic account of the imagination which features prominently within English Protestant discourse. I conclude this section with another discussion of Francis Bacon, this time focussing on the religious dimension of his account of the “idols of the mind.” In the third section, I consider the language of psychological self-government as it focusses on the imagination. I consider the scholastic Aristotelian tradition of moral philosophy before returning to English Protestant theology and a brief excursus back into natural philosophy. The section ends with a detailed engagement with English political writing, focussing particularly on works written in the vernacular. I consider, in turn, Tyndale, Ponet, Goodman, Milton and, finally, the radical Civil War pamphleteer Gerrard Winstanley.