A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 of 2: Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumes — John Shaqi
A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 of 2: Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumesRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 of 2: Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumes
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Free thought -- History
Of much greater scholarly merit is the Geschichte der religiösen
Aufklärung im Mittelalter, vom Ende des achten Jahrhunderts bis
zum Anfange des vierzehnten, by Hermann Reuter (1875, 1877). This
is at once learned, judicious, and impartial. Its definition of
"Aufklärung" is substantially in agreement with the working
definition of Freethought given above.
Among other surveys of periods of innovating thought, as
distinguished from histories of ecclesiastical heresy, or
histories of "religious" or theological thought which only
incidentally deal with heterodox opinion, should be noted the
careful Geschichte des englischen Deismus of G. F. Lechler
(1841); the slighter sketch of E. Sayous, Les déistes anglais
et le Christianisme (1882); the somewhat diffuse work of
Cesare Cantù, Gli eretici d'Italia (3 tom. 1865-67); the very
intelligent study of Felice Tocco, L'Eresia nel medio evo (1884);
Schmidt's Histoire des Cathares (2 tom. 1849); Chr. U. Hahn's
learned Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter (3 Bde. 1845-50);
and the valuable research of F. T. Perrens, Les Libertins en
France au xviie siècle (1896). A similar scholarly research for
the eighteenth century in France is still lacking, and the many
monographs on the more famous freethinkers leave a good deal
of literary history in obscurity. Such a research has been very
painstakingly made for England in the late Sir Leslie Stephen's
History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols.,
2nd ed., 1881), which, however, ignores scientific thought. One
of the best monographs of the kind is La Critique des traditions
religieuses chez les Grecs, des origines au temps de Plutarque,
by Professor Paul Decharme (1904), a survey at once scholarly
and attractive. The brilliant treatise of Mr. F. M. Cornford,
From Religion to Philosophy (1912), sketches on more speculative
lines the beginnings of Greek rationalism in Ionia. The Geschichte
des Monismus im Altertum of Prof. Dr. A. Drews (1913) is a wide
survey, of great synthetic value.
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