Free Essay - Thomas Hobbes and Religion/Politics

Thomas Hobbes, was an unusual Christian, albeit with the prowess of stories of Christianity that were aimed at strengthening the commonwealth. That was achieved through the Leviathan which was aimed at replacing the contemporary versions with the one that promoted obedience and stability in the state. It was Hobbes' understanding of human beings that prompted the beginning of his political philosophy and his religious ideas, citing that the belief in religion was a natural phenomenon in humans. That was informed by anxiety which needed a sovereign state to coordinate in the quest to prevent strife. According to Hobbes, religion would be a better solution to the state's concerns, and its interpretation would only be underscored through correct lines Hobbesian (Apeldoorn & Douglass, 2018). Hobbes' political philosophies, coupled with religious ideas, is an opener to the new thinking directions of his treatments on the same in the history of political realms and Christian doctrines. Was Hobbes' views on the role of the state and religion a contributor to modern political thought and religious affirmation? Hobbes' motive and logical arguments, coupled with his philosophical coherence, therefore, offer intertwined political and religious preoccupations demonstrating his perspectives and provocative positions on the political arena that is not only relevant in contemporary concerns but also to religious audiences.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Discussion on Hobbes' Religion and Politics

Hobbes' Theocratic Leviathan is an emblem of the church and state which he did by not only acknowledging the Erastain view of the authority of the country over the church but also the identical nature of the country and the church. Here, he viewed the member of the state church as being all citizens to form the Hobbesian commonwealth. With that, he meant that a proper sovereign authority involved the formation and gathering of the church. Hobbes' Natural sovereignty and the omnipotent Leviathan was in consideration of his depiction of God as sovereign, natural, and absolute owing to His irresistible powers. Hobbes is recognized as the political thinker who broke the Christian political topology and lain a foundation to a more secular political philosophy that as aimed at shaping religion and politics in the modern West. That has helped in the modern liberal democracies' approach to religion and politics devoid of a decisive break. Hobbes offered a straightforward position on politics and religion, which juxtaposes a mighty sovereign to whom should be accorded the right to control the teachings of the public/doctrines.

He, however, asserted that some religious views in the first doctrine should have a sovereign prohibition, owing to the opinionated action of certain principles that require citizens' obedience on a higher authority than the civil sovereign (Stauffer, 2010). The commonwealth should in most care never be undermined by those who desire compliance with the promise of salvation and the threat of damnation. Hobbes is therefore acknowledged for the establishment of the theoretical foundations of the modern states that is directed by the secular end with human sources derivation of authority.

Chapter 12 of Hobbes' Leviathan

Hobbes' section 12 of The Leviathan underlies the unique nature of religion to humans, albeit relevant to people's quests of finding the causes of things and acceptance to authority. It also asserts the notion of people's anxiety about the future and their felt need that makes them believe in the invisible causes (Hobbes, 1660). Hobbes also underlies the four origins of religious beliefs as the worship of the feared, belief in omens, ghosts' opinions, and ignorance of the second causes that lead to superstitions or false generalizations. Similarly, Hobbes' Leviathan lies emphasis on the natural seed of religion as an aspect of the development of many religions stemming from the doctrine of the Gentiles and Abrahamic faiths. That, Hobbes attributes to have developed for political purposes to make the believers obedient to the law and peaceful, subsequently leading to civil society. Hobbes also illustrates how the Gentiles used religion for politics in the notion that the subjects of the legislation hailed from supernatural powers and that the ceremonies meant to appease the gods brought designed changes on earth like avoidance of sicknesses and victories in wars. And that inadequate compliance of the rules of worship led to misfortunes hence the Romans' tolerance of religion that supported the state (Hobbes, 1660). Finally, Hobbes' chapter twelve of The Leviathan underscored the dynamism and resolutions of religious beliefs stemming from the distinctive cultural practices to the original sacred seeds that even human nature can never be abolished like the invisible power and deity beliefs.

Hobbes' View on Religion and God

Hobbes acknowledged the existence of God, who is just and omniscient as a recurrent in his Leviathan. Similarly, the attribute God as a human spirit, meaning that God is extended not only in an individual's place in the world but also affecting worldly things. Hobbes' view on religion, God and politics stems from Calvinism, the relation between the church-state coupled with the Theocratic Leviathan with the belief that the state and the church are united and all their members are the commonwealth. One of his extreme Calvinism views was determinism which underscores striking features of theology. His rhetorical political thoughts on the Mosaic Leviathan that highlights religion is in context with the vital elements of the Old Testament and biblical Israel in the political arena of England's Seventieth century. Here, Hobbes exemplifies the biblical Moses with sovereignty in the appropriation of Republicans' narratives of the redirection of absolution services.

Similarly, Jon Parking's questions Hobbes' work and the Future of Religion question Hobbesian religion and on how it would look like (Apeldoorn & Douglass, 2018). His critical analysis is based on the fact that Hobbes's aims were never articulated to one particular religion, but rather on multiple faiths. Parkin gains his motivation from the early reactions on Hobbes' theology which had learned vast puzzlements on the groups that Hobbes belonged to, and his wild and incoherent views. According to Parking (Apeldoorn &Douglass, 2018), Hobbes was aimed at encouraging people with vast positions in thinking in the Hobbesian ways in their forward movements. Hobbes had, therefore, envisioned a future with vas forms of Christianity in his insistence of having one church in the state. Additionally, Hobbes's theory of religious conflict juxtaposed his commonality as a modern secular theorist that resolved spiritual warfare. He had exemplified the English civil war with a holy war which subsequently led to a rise of the conscience and the role of the established church.

Hobbes' primary advocating on religion and politics was not to separate the church from the state but rather a subordination of the church to the country. Similarly, he says that an organized religion stems from understanding human beings through their beliefs in worship that is natural and is provoked by anxiety that should be coordinated through the sovereign to prevent war. Regarding God, referred to his elements of the law in offering a cosmological argument on God's existence, albeit there is an aspect of God's presence that is not known, the cause of all causes; without body or parts yet God is still human spirit. Hobbes' prevalence of religious and theological themes is therefore underlined in his Leviathan which he devotes to the Christian commonwealth and the kingdom of darkness.

Thomas Hobbes and Politics

In the political realm, Hobbes' defines his ideal government deal as an absolute monarchy, which he believed was the excellent, true, and correct form of government. He forcefully underscored that argument in the landmark of his work in his Leviathan, stemming from his ternate of natural philosophy that humans are the main selfish creatures that ever existed. In his political arena, Hobbes goes ahead and juxtaposes the social contract theory with the view of people giving up their liberty in exchange for security with the definition of contract as a mutual agreement of transferring rights. He underlies the state of nature, which grants everyone rights to everything, devoid of limits to natural liberty rights.

Additionally, Hobbes asserted that the government informs the sovereign, which makes and tells laws in the quest of maintaining peace, life, liberty, and property in the society, the social contract agreement. He firmly believed that the government should be headed by a king to enforce the best sovereign state. He supported that argument with the Leviathan which underlies absolute sovereignty for the social contract and that it is only by a stable government that the war on the state of nature can be curbed.

Hobbes' political thoughts, in a nutshell, were based on the state which he asserted would not be secure unless it has an absolute sovereign, meaning that no individual should be allowed to hold rights without the monarch. Still, the sovereign, on the other hand, may take its subject's goods event without the subject's consent. He illustrated that through his book, the Leviathan where he influenced that state's foundation and its legitimate government coupled with morality as a science of objectivity. The book underlies a demonstration of the centrality of authority in the quest of avoiding evil in periods of civil war (Hobbes, 1660). Additionally, Hobbes juxtaposes the state of nature that would exist without a government, a state in which everyone would have a right to everything in the world. Hobbes asserts that the state of life would lead to a war of all against all, thereby a need for a social contract to establish a civil society. Hobbes' view on society is on the emblem of population and sovereign authority to where the societal individuals cede rights for protection. He concludes his political discussions by asserting that it is impossible to resist authoritarian power since the sovereign power is derived from the individuals who surrender their sovereign powers for the sake of their protection. That makes individuals the authors of sovereign decision makings. Hobbes' assertion is on the sovereign having total control of power on all the stakeholders stemming from the military, judiciary, the civil, in words and the skills of the ecclesiastical.

Analysis of Hobbes' Religion/Politics

Hobbes attempted to reconcile the doctrines of Christianity with civic philosophy through his expressions of power theories with a unique brand of Christian faith in human nature. His views on the quality of humans underscore his belief in the hopelessness of men when controlled by two masters, God, and the civil sovereign. The double standards of men in the quest of choosing the master to serve would inform their divided loyalties with the two sources of authority, God and civil authority. In that notion, I concur with Hobbes' point of view regarding the same, especially when he asserts that it should be ultimate obedience to the two types of authority. Hence the church and the state should be unified. That is since God exists and should be honored at the same time, the civic sovereign should be obeyed b the subjects to prevent the state of nature from happening.