Deism

== Early developments of Deism ==

=== Ancient history ===
{{main|History of philosophy}}

Deistical thinking has existed since [[Ancient history|ancient times]]; the roots of Deism can be traced back to the [[Ancient Greek philosophy|philosophical tradition]] of [[Ancient Greece]].{{sfn|Piland|2011|p=4}} The 3rd-century Christian theologian and philosopher [[Clement of Alexandria]] explicitly mentioned persons who believed that [[God]] was not involved in human affairs, and therefore led what he considered a licentious life.<ref>''Stromata'', book 7, ch. 3. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), ''Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to AD 325'', vol. 12, p. 416</ref> However, Deism did not develop as a religio-philosophical movement until after the [[Scientific Revolution]], which began in the mid-16th century in [[early modern Europe]].{{sfn|Piland|2011|p=5}}

=== Divinity schools in Islamic theology ===
{{main|Aqidah|God in Islam}}

In the [[history of Islam]], one of the earliest [[Schools of Islamic theology|systematic schools of Islamic theology]] to develop were the [[Mu'tazilism|Muʿtazila]] in the mid-8th century CE.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016">{{•}} {{cite book |last=Treiger |first=Alexander |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Origins of Kalām |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=27–43 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.001 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2021-10-19 |archive-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118051704/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |url-status=live }}<br />{{•}} {{cite book |last=Abrahamov |first=Binyamin |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=264–279 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.025 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2021-10-19 |archive-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118051704/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Peters 1980">{{cite journal |author-last=Peters |author-first=J. R. T. M. |date=1980 |title=La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |journal=Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage |volume=2 |issue=1: ''Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe'' |language=fr |doi=10.3406/hel.1980.1049 |doi-access=free |pages=9–19 |issn=1638-1580 |access-date=2021-11-30 |archive-date=2021-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130233309/https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |url-status=live }}</ref> Muʿtazilite theologians emphasized the use of [[reason]] and [[Rationalism|rational thought]], positing that the injunctions of [[God in Islam|God]] are accessible through rational thought and inquiry, and affirmed that [[Quranic createdness|the Quran was created]] (''makhlūq'') rather than co-eternal with God, which would develop into one of the most contentious questions in the history of Islamic theology.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016"/><ref name="Peters 1980"/>

In the 9th–10th century CE, the [[Ash'arism|Ashʿarī school]] developed as a response to the Muʿtazila, founded by the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari|Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī]].<ref name="Thiele 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Thiele |author-first=Jan |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Between Cordoba and Nīsābūr: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ashʿarism (Fourth–Fifth/Tenth–Eleventh Century) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA225 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=225–241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.45 |isbn=978-0-19-969670-3 |lccn=2016935488}}</ref> Ashʿarītes still taught the use of reason in understanding the Quran, but denied the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning.<ref name="Thiele 2016"/> This position was opposed by the [[Maturidism|Māturīdī school]];<ref name="Ulrich 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Rudolph |author-first=Ulrich |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Ḥanafī Theological Tradition and Māturīdism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=285–290 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.023 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2023-06-02 |archive-date=2023-01-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101224726/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |url-status=live }}</ref> according to its founder, the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Mansur al-Maturidi|Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī]], human reason is supposed to acknowledge the existence of a [[creator deity]] (''bāriʾ'') solely [[Rationalism|based on rational thought]] and independently from divine revelation.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/> He shared this conviction with his teacher and predecessor [[Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man|Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān]] (8th century CE), whereas al-Ashʿarī never held such a view.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/>

According to the Afghan-American philosopher [[Sayed Hassan Akhlaq|Sayed Hassan Hussaini]], the early schools of Islamic theology and theological beliefs among [[Early Islamic philosophy|classical Muslim philosophers]] are characterized by "a rich color of Deism with a slight disposition toward [[theism]]".<ref name="Hussaini 2016">{{cite journal |last=Hussaini |first=Sayed Hassan |author-link=Sayed Hassan Akhlaq |date=2016 |title=Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism |journal=Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |location=[[Braga]] |publisher=Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |volume=72 |issue=1: ''Teísmos: Aportações Filosóficas do Leste e Oeste / Theisms: Philosophical Contributions from the East to the West'' |pages=65–83 |doi=10.17990/RPF/2016_72_1_0065 |issn=0870-5283 |jstor=43816275}}</ref>

=== Origins of the term "''Deism''" ===
The terms ''deism'' and ''[[theism]]'' are both derived from words meaning "[[god]]": the [[Latin]] term ''[[deus]]'' and the [[Ancient Greek language|Ancient Greek]] term ''theós'' (θεός).<ref name="Harper 2020"/> The word ''déiste'' first appeared in French in 1563 in a theological treatise written by the [[Swiss Reformation|Swiss]] [[Calvinism|Calvinist theologian]] named [[Pierre Viret]],<ref name="DHS 2005">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Pitassi |author-first=Maria-Cristina |title=Déisme |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/011423/2005-08-22/ |url-status=live |encyclopedia=[[Historical Dictionary of Switzerland]] |date=22 August 2005 |location=[[Geneva]] |publisher=Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences |language=fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329035216/https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/011423/2005-08-22/ |archive-date=29 March 2023 |access-date=30 May 2023 |quote=Si le terme de déisme se trouve déjà chez [[Pierre Viret]] en 1563, ce n'est qu'aux XVIIe et XVIIIe s. que le mouvement connut son véritable essor. Il fut actif surtout en Angleterre où [[Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury|Herbert of Cherbury]] d'abord, [[Matthew Tindal]], [[John Toland]], et [[Anthony Collins (philosopher)|Anthony Collins]] ensuite lui donnèrent ses bases intellectuelles. [...] Malgré des sensibilités assez différentes à l'intérieur du mouvement, le déisme se caractérise par une attaque virulente de la révélation biblique et des institutions ecclésiastiques au nom d'une religion naturelle que l'être humain peut découvrir en utilisant exclusivement sa raison. [...] Assimilés par les apologistes chrétiens à des athées, les déistes ne niaient pas l'existence de Dieu mais dénonçaient sans indulgence les prétendues incohérences, voire les immoralités de l'Ecriture; celle-ci, considérée dans le meilleur des cas comme un amas de contradictions et dans le pire comme une supercherie habilement exploitée par les autorités ecclésiastiques, était ainsi dépouillée de tout caractère sacré. Pourtant, en dépit de son côté radical et polémique, la réflexion déiste sur l'Ancien et le Nouveau Testament a contribué au développement du criticisme biblique, en particulier en ce qui concerne l'élucidation des origines juives et chrétiennes, l'histoire du canon ou l'interprétation des prophéties.}}</ref> but Deism was generally unknown in the [[Kingdom of France]] until the 1690s when [[Pierre Bayle]] published his famous ''[[Dictionnaire Historique et Critique]]'', which contained an article on Viret.<ref>
{{cite book
    | last1 =                    Bayle
    | first1 =                   Pierre
    | author-link1 =        Pierre Bayle
    | chapter =               Viret
    | title =                     Dictionnaire historique et critique
    | url =                       https://books.google.com/books?id=pHAHjxIW7uEC
    | language =             fr
    | volume =               14
    | edition =                Nouvelle
    | location =              Paris
    | publisher =            Desoer
    | access-date =         2017-11-23
| year = 1820
 }} (1697/1820)
Bayle quotes Viret (see below) as follows: “J'ai entendu qu'il y en a de ceste bande, qui s'appellent déistes, d'un mot tout nouveau, lequel ils veulent opposer à l'athéiste,” remarking on the term as a neologism (''un mot tout nouveau''). (p.418)</ref>

In English, the words ''deist'' and ''theist'' were originally synonymous, but by the 17th century the terms started to diverge in meaning.<ref>{{cite book
    |last=          Orr
    |first=          John
    |title=          English Deism: Its Roots and Its Fruits
    |publisher= Eerdmans
    |year=         1934
}} The words deism and theism are both derived words meaning "god" - "THE": Latin ZEUS-deus /"deist" and Greek theos/ "theist" (θεός). The word deus/déiste first appears in French in 1564 in a work by a Swiss Calvinist named Pierre Viret, but was generally unknown in France until the 1690s when Pierre Bayle published his famous Dictionary, which contained an article on Viret.“Prior to the 17th Century the terms ["deism" and "deist"] were used interchangeably with the terms "theism" and "theist", respectively. .. Theologians and philosophers of the 17th Century began to give a different signification to the words. .. Both [theists and deists] asserted belief in one supreme God, the Creator. .. But the theist taught that God remained actively interested in and operative in the world which he had made, whereas the Deist maintained that God endowed the world at creation with self-sustaining and self-acting powers and then surrendered it wholly to the operation of these powers acting as second causes.” (p.13)</ref> The term ''deist'' with its current meaning first appears in English in [[Robert Burton (scholar)|Robert Burton]]'s ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]'' (1621).

=== Herbert of Cherbury and early English Deism ===
[[File:Edward Herbert 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury by Isaac Oliver.jpg|thumb|230px|right|[[Lord Herbert of Cherbury]], portrayed by [[Isaac Oliver]] (1560–1617)]]

The first major statement of Deism in English is [[Lord Herbert of Cherbury]]'s book ''[[De Veritate]]'' (1624).<ref>Basil Willey, ''The Seventeenth Century Background: Studies in the Thought of the Age in Relation to Poetry and Religion'', 1934, p.59ff.</ref> Lord Herbert, like his contemporary [[Descartes]], searched for the foundations of knowledge. The first two-thirds of his book ''[[De Veritate]]'' (''On Truth, as It Is Distinguished from Revelation, the Probable, the Possible, and the False'') are devoted to an exposition of Herbert's [[Epistemology|theory of knowledge]]. Herbert distinguished truths from experience and reasoning about experience from innate and revealed truths. Innate truths are imprinted on our minds, as evidenced by their universal acceptance. Herbert referred to universally accepted truths as ''notitiae communes&mdash;''Common Notions. Herbert believed there were five Common Notions that unify all religious beliefs.
# There is one Supreme God.
# God ought to be worshipped.
# Virtue and piety are the main parts of divine worship.
# We ought to be remorseful for our sins and repent.
# Divine goodness dispenses rewards and punishments, both in this life and after it.

Herbert himself had relatively few followers, and it was not until the 1680s that Herbert found a true successor in [[Charles Blount (deist)|Charles Blount]] (1654 – 1693).<ref>{{Cite book
            |last=    Gay
            |title=   (see above)
        }} "By utilizing his wide classical learning, Blount demonstrated how to use pagan writers, and pagan ideas, against Christianity. ... Other Deists were to follow his lead." (pp.47-48)</ref>

==={{anchor|The rise of British deism (1690–1740)}}The peak of Deism (1696–1801)===
<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not move it out of the section heading, even though it disrupts edit summary generation (you can manually fix the edit summary before saving your changes). Please do not modify it, even if you modify the section title. It is always best to anchor an old section header that has been changed so that links to it won't be broken. See [[Template:Anchor]] for details. (This text: [[Template:Anchor comment]]) -->
{{See also|Deism in England and France in the 18th century}}
The appearance of [[John Locke]]'s ''Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' (1690) marks an important turning-point and new phase in the history of English Deism. Lord Herbert's [[epistemology]] was based on the idea of "common notions" (or [[innate ideas]]). Locke's ''Essay'' was an attack on the foundation of innate ideas. After Locke, deists could no longer appeal to innate ideas as Herbert had done. Instead, deists were forced to turn to arguments based on experience and nature. Under the influence of Newton, they turned to the [[argument from design]] as the principal argument for the existence of God.<ref>Note that Locke himself was not a deist. He believed in both miracles and revelation.  See Orr, pp.96-99.</ref>

[[Peter Gay]] identifies [[John Toland]]'s ''[[Christianity Not Mysterious]]'' (1696), and the "vehement response" it provoked, as the beginning of post-Lockian Deism. Among the notable figures, Gay describes Toland and [[Matthew Tindal]] as the best known; however, Gay considered them to be talented publicists rather than philosophers or scholars. He regards Conyers Middleton and [[Anthony Collins (philosopher)|Anthony Collins]] as contributing more to the substance of debate, in contrast with fringe writers such as [[Thomas Chubb]] and [[Thomas Woolston]].<ref name="Gay, 1968, pp.9-10">
{{Cite book
    |last=Gay
    |title=(see above)
}}  “Among the Deists, only Anthony Collins (1676–1729) could claim much philosophical competence; only Conyers Middleton (1683–1750) was a really serious scholar. The best known Deists, notably John Toland (1670–1722) and Matthew Tindal (1656–1733), were talented publicists, clear without being deep, forceful but not subtle. ... Others, like Thomas Chubb (1679–1747), were self-educated freethinkers; a few, like Thomas Woolston (1669–1731), were close to madness.” (pp.9-10)</ref>

Other English Deists prominent during the period include [[William Wollaston]], [[Charles Blount (deist)|Charles Blount]], [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke]],<ref name="Britannica"/> and, in the latter part, [[Peter Annet]], [[Thomas Chubb]], and [[Thomas Morgan (deist)|Thomas Morgan]]. [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury]] was also influential; though not presenting himself as a Deist, he shared many of the deists' key attitudes and is now usually regarded as a Deist.<ref>
{{Cite book
    |last=Gay
    |title=(see above)
}}        Gay describes him (pp.78-79) as "a Deist in fact, if not in name".</ref>

Especially noteworthy is Matthew Tindal's ''Christianity as Old as the Creation'' (1730), which became, very soon after its publication, the focal center of the Deist controversy. Because almost every argument, quotation, and issue raised for decades can be found here, the work is often termed "the Deist's Bible".<ref>{{cite book
    | last=Waring
    | title=(see above)
}}           p.107.</ref> Following Locke's successful attack on innate ideas, Tindal's "Bible" redefined the foundation of Deist [[epistemology]] as knowledge based on experience or human reason. This effectively widened the gap between traditional Christians and what he called "Christian Deists", since this new foundation required that "revealed" truth be validated through human reason.