A Brief Discussion on the Basic Spirit of Hobbes's Religious Theology
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was a British materialist philosopher, political thinker, and a renowned representative of the classical natural law school. The age in which he lived was frequently plunged into extreme religious chaos. Immersed in an environment of fierce religious conflict in Britain and Europe, Hobbes attached great importance to the topic of religious theology. In his masterpiece Leviathan, nearly half of the text is devoted to religious issues—specifically Parts III and IV—and contains over 700 direct citations from the Bible. From this, it is evident that religious theological thought occupies an exceptionally important position within Hobbes's vast theoretical system. Hobbes thereby established and constructed his own system of religious theological thought. On one hand, as an eminent thinker in the struggle against religious theology, Hobbes not only exposed the falsity of religious concepts but was also determined to shake and overthrow the theological theoretical system that constituted the religious worldview. On the other hand, he provided several rational and valuable expositions on the isomorphous unity of religious theology and politics, the rational construction of theology and social order, and the internal logic between religious theology and philosophy.
I. Exposure and Critique of the Essence of Religious Theology
Hobbes lived during a period of acute economic and political upheaval in Britain. The primary period of his activity and theoretical formation coincided with the height of the English Bourgeois Revolution; he witnessed both the victory of the revolution and the restoration of the feudal monarchy. Moreover, during this era, the rapid progress of natural sciences in Europe—such as astronomy, geography, mathematics, and especially physiology—had a profound influence on the formation and development of Hobbes's anti-theological thought. Proceeding from materialist principles, Hobbes launched a critique of the theological ideas propagated by religious theology regarding the existence of spiritual substances such as God, angels, and the soul. He argued that these were contrary to man's natural reason; the presence of ideas concerning God or angels in people’s minds, and their belief in such existences, stemmed entirely from ignorance of nature. He stated: "And they that make little or no inquiry into the natural causes of things, yet from the fear that proceeds from the ignorance itself, of what it is that hath the power to do them much good or harm, are inclined to suppose, and feign unto themselves, several kinds of powers invisible; and to stand in awe of their own imaginations." [1] The ruling classes then "cherished and adorned" the natural seeds of religion to govern others. From this, we can see that Hobbes, to a certain extent, revealed the cognitive and social roots of religious theology and arrived at atheistic conclusions.
In Europe under the shackles of medieval theology, Christian theology—aimed at demonstrating the existence of God and religious dogma—consistently wore the cloak of pseudo-science. Not only that, it forced all other sciences to serve it. Following the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, human thought underwent a great liberation. People began to wage a struggle against Christian theology, yet this struggle remained largely incomplete. Hobbes directed his critical fire at the supreme institution of Christianity—the Roman Curia. He argued that treating the earthly church as the Kingdom of God was the Roman Curia’s most sinister intent, a result of the total abuse of the Bible, the most absurd of dogmas, and the source of all spiritual darkness. Additionally, he employed rationalist principles to reinterpret the Bible. In his representative work, Leviathan, Hobbes meticulously sketched a picture of the Christian Commonwealth and provided rational explanations for a series of issues such as the soul, prophets, miracles, and the afterlife. For instance, Hobbes provided a materialist explanation for "spirit" and "body," while citing the usage of "Holy Spirit" in the Bible to argue for the consistency of the two. Hobbes maintained that "body" and "substance" are merely different names for the same thing; all substances are bodies. Hobbes’s definition of "spirit" was: "In common speech, it signifieth either a subtle, fluid, invisible body." [2] Much like air. Thus, spirit is simply another "substantial entity." Regarding the issue of "miracles," he said: "In this case, we are not every of us to make use of our own private reason or conscience, but of the public reason, that is to say, of the reason of God's supreme lieutenant." [3] In this way, Hobbes reclaimed the power to interpret miracles—the most demagogic element of religion—from the hands of the Church and returned it to the Sovereign. Therefore, the decision of whether a thing should be regarded as a miracle rests with the Sovereign of public reason.
In summary, we can see that Hobbes used rationalist principles to provide a brand-new interpretation of religious theology and launched a ruthless critique of Christianity. Under the social conditions of that time, this undoubtedly played a massive role in ideological liberation, freeing human thought from Christian theology.
II. Philosophical Thought Based on the Opposition to Religious Theology
In medieval and early modern Europe, the contradiction between reason and faith, and between philosophy and theology, remained the primary contradiction in the ideological realm. Under the medieval situation of Christian spiritual dictatorship, faith stood above reason, and philosophy was the "handmaiden of theology" [4]. Regarding philosophy, Hobbes argued: "Philosophy excludes history, natural as well as political, though both are most useful (nay, necessary) to it; for such knowledge is but experience or authority, and not ratiocination. It excludes all knowledge acquired by Divine inspiration or revelation, as not derived to us by reason, but by some supernatural sense in an instant through the grace of God." [5] From Hobbes's perspective, we can discern that he viewed philosophy as an all-encompassing, comprehensive system of science, whose purpose or goal is to seek the benefit of mankind. He placed particular emphasis on causal relationships and their characteristics. The world faced by philosophy—whether the natural world or the world of man and nature—is composed of causal relations; nothing exists without a cause, and there is nothing that can be known only through eternal ultimate ends or faith. We can conclude that Hobbes's view of philosophy excludes theology. The proposition that "philosophy excludes theology" is the most distinct hallmark and fundamental principle of Hobbes's atheistic system. Hobbes stated: "I exclude theology, I mean the doctrine concerning the eternal, ingenerable [6], and incomprehensible God; I exclude the doctrine concerning angels; I exclude all knowledge that comes by divine inspiration or revelation; I exclude astrology and all such divinations; and I exclude the doctrine of worshiping God." [7]
However, Hobbes's philosophical thought also possessed its own deficiencies and even conspicuous loopholes. This was related to his viewing of problems through the bourgeois theory of human nature rather than the scientific historical materialist [8] outlook; it was related to the construction of his theory itself, and it was closely linked to the era and the class interests to which he belonged. In his theory of human nature, he universalized the ugly human traits of benefiting oneself at the expense of others and insatiable greed, thereby simplifying the inherently complex nature of humanity. In his epistemology, while he clearly affirmed that all human knowledge originates from sensory experience, he fragmented the organic links within the process of cognition. Even in his highly esteemed thoughts on causality, he denied the objectivity of cognitive content, thereby falling into his own logical confusion. All of this was rooted in his mechanical materialism [9], which was an inherent limitation he could not overcome. The mechanistic tendency is the most prominent feature of Hobbes's philosophy, reflected throughout all his philosophical ideas.
Overall, the proposal of Hobbes's materialist philosophical thought marked a major step forward in the struggle of materialism against idealism and religious theology in Western Europe, and particularly in Britain. Starting from empiricism, Hobbes investigated human social issues without seeking help from God. His atheism and his opposition to the "divine right of kings" [10] contained materialist elements and held great progressive significance for opposing the traditional religious theological worldview. However, we see that Hobbes’s philosophical system discarded dialectical elements and carried a distinct mechanical quality. He viewed everything occurring in the objective material world through the lens of mechanical motion, which led to a denial of qualitative change and development in things, exerting a certain negative influence on the subsequent development of European philosophy.
III. The Isomorphous Unity of Religious Theology and Politics
Hobbes’s political theory discarded traditional Western political thinking models and truly founded political science upon modern natural and empirical sciences, possessing a clear pioneering quality that was utilized, inherited, and developed by later political thinkers. In Leviathan, Hobbes preliminarily revealed the essentially isomorphous relationship between politics and religion. Why can it be said that religion and politics share an isomorphous relationship? Because they are both based on "fear as their foundational theory: the former is the fear of some unknowable power, and the latter is the fear of the absolute power of the Sovereign." [11] Furthermore, both religion and politics represent a form of obedience to power (or force). Recognizing this isomorphous relationship between politics and religion is an important starting point for understanding Hobbes's entire religious thought. In constructing his state political theory, Hobbes argued that government is not created according to God’s will but through a contract; likewise, sovereign power is not divinely ordained but is transferred and entrusted by the people. This clearly stripped away the mysterious religious cloak of state power. However, his political principles did not entirely break free from theological modes of demonstration. Influenced by the objective environment of the time, he, like previous political thinkers, used religious theology as a basis to argue his theory, resulting in a mixture of theological thought. This indicates that Hobbes's ideas still suffered from the limitations of his era. Yet, what set Hobbes apart was his clarification of the political nature of religion. He believed that, based on the isomorphous relationship between politics and religion, religion must be political—it must be cultivated, utilized, and served by politics. Becoming part of politics, it is a convenient tool for the ruling class to enslave the people and an important spiritual pillar for maintaining their rule. In other words, religion is not merely a matter of soul and faith, but a political task; it is a politicized religious system. We note that Hobbes provided his own rational explanation for the origin of religion, and in the face of actual religion, he understood it comprehensively from a political perspective.
Hobbes advocated social contract theory, in which divine power is subordinate to sovereign power, unifying the two so that religion serves actual society, thereby assuming, in a sense, the role of a modern civil religion. Leviathan was born within this theological framework. Thus, it is necessary to explore Hobbes's motives for extensively involving religious issues in political science. Some believe he had an important element of defending Christianity; beyond his obvious political goals, his theological concepts were an attempt to respond to the challenges posed to religion by the new sciences of Copernicus and Galileo, and to prevent the abuse of religion for political purposes. He sought to show that religious content could be harmonized with the new sciences and to prove that religious theology could not be legitimately used to undermine the stability of a government. Others, however, believe that in the name of natural justice and human rights, Hobbes constructed a conspiracy against true Christianity, and that those who believe Hobbes was sincere in his treatment of religion have been deceived by him.
It should be said that religious theology occupies a certain position in Hobbes's political thought. He used theological ideas to argue his theories, and yet he was the one who liberated political science from the entanglements of religion, making a decisive contribution to the secularization of political theoretical science. Based on the theory of human nature, he formed a systematic doctrine of the state and sovereignty through the rigorous demonstration of terms such as the state of nature, natural law, and the social contract. At the same time, by reinterpreting religious theology in a rationalist manner and using empirical science as a theoretical foundation, he established a political theory independent of pre-existing society, playing an epoch-making role in the development of Western political thought.
IV. The Rational Construction of Religious Theology and Social Order
Reason was the most fundamental idea of the Age of Enlightenment. In this era, thinkers used reason as a weapon, used knowledge to dispel ignorance, used human nature to confront divinity, and used human rights to oppose divine power, in order to establish a rational society and cultivate rational human beings. Hobbes viewed the state and the social order it represents as the result of human beings’ prudent reflection and the application of their rational design capabilities, thereby negating the theory of the theocratic state. He said: "Man has a capacity superior to other animals, which is that when he imagines anything, he is prone to inquire into the consequences," and humans can "by words reduce the consequences they find to general rules, called theorems, or aphorisms." [12] These theorems or aphorisms are clearly what Hobbes calls reason; however, they are not naturally occurring but were established through opposition to theocratic power.
Hobbes provided an exhaustive elaboration of reason within his philosophy, the primary points of which are as follows: First, reason is a capacity unique to human beings, and all people possess equal rational ability. During the long European Middle Ages, the dominant religious-theological thought held that God and universal spirits dictated all human affairs. This fundamentally erased human creative capacity. Hobbes, conversely, advocated for the exercise of human initiative and creativity; moreover, he viewed individuals as equal, rational subjects, thereby negating the concepts of feudal hierarchy protected by divine right [13]. Second, reason is the inquiry into the causes of things, and the state of nature is the cause of the existing state. In exploring the origins of the state, Hobbes excluded factors such as destiny, divine providence, and history, instead positing a "nature"—hypothetical yet self-evident—as the cause of existing states and societies. He was convinced that by proceeding from the state of nature, one could understand the entire formative process of the state and social order. Knowledge of this cause, the state of nature, enables people to better arrange the present and concern themselves with the future in the most advantageous manner. Finally, reason—as a capacity for weighing options and making choices—is the foundation and driving force for the construction of social order. Hobbes believed that the first component of the rational capacity to construct social order is the discovery of a possible path to escape the state of nature: namely, the natural law, which serves as "precepts" or a "general rule." Natural law is binding upon the human conscience; it is a normative code of conduct and a moral principle to be followed by the state when enacting laws. The second component is that reason inspires people to enter into a covenant [14], allowing an individual or a collective to possess absolute authority to govern society and guarantee order. Through the covenant, the state is authorized to organize the will of all people and employ the power and means granted to it in a manner conducive to their peace and common defense. The third component is reason's optimistic attitude toward its own capacity for choice. Hobbes argued that this capacity for choice is manifested in two aspects: first, in reason's discovery of the necessary means to escape the state of nature—the covenant; and second, in the fact that people can rationally choose that authoritative "person" or sovereign to whom they will grant all their rights.
In summary, Hobbes’s design for a rational social order is established under the guarantee of absolute authority. The divinity that originally cloaked the state was stripped away, and the state became an institution designed by rational people using rational methods. He derived the natural laws of the state from reason and experience rather than theology, negating the decisive role of the divine in social order, which possesses significant historical progressive significance. However, we must also recognize the limitations of reason and not blindly trust in its power. Social development is not a purely natural process; the construction of social order is closely linked to social traditions, customs, and culture.
In conclusion, as a great thinker, Hobbes’s thought spanned politics, philosophy, and anti-religious theology, representing the highest intellectual and theoretical achievements of his era. Regarding his opposition to religious theology, he exposed its essence and launched a fierce critique, greatly liberating the minds of the people. His philosophical thought, built on the foundation of opposing religious theology, ignited a new philosophical revolution. These contributions laid an important theoretical foundation for subsequent thinkers to enrich and develop his ideas from various perspectives.
Notes: ① Hobbes (UK), trans. Li Sifu et al., Leviathan [M], Commercial Press, 1985 edition, pp. 270, 309. ② Ibid., pp. 306, 354. ③ Teaching and Research Office of the History of Foreign Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Peking University, ed., Selected Original Works of Western Philosophy (Vol. I) [M], Commercial Press, 1982 edition, p. 386. ④ Ibid. ⑤ Ibid. ⑥ Sun Xiangchen, "On the Tension between Theology and Politics in Leviathan" [J], Journal of Fudan University (Social Sciences Edition), No. 3, 2005. ⑦ Hobbes (UK), trans. Li Sifu et al., Leviathan [M], Commercial Press, 1985 edition, p. 30. ⑧ Li Qingjun, "Hobbes: Reason and Social Order" [J], Jianghai Academic Journal, No. 6, 2004.