Deism

=== 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).