Deists and deism as reflected in European religion and culture of the 16th — 18th centuries

Abstract

This article analyses the history of the terms deist and deism in the European philosophical thought of the 16th — 18th centuries. It studies the meanings of the terms deist and deism which were given in foreign and Russian encyclopaediae, dictionaries and treatises of the period in question. It also demonstrates dynamics in the development of these terms as they were understood by preceding scholars. The article cites the terminology used by English, French, and German thinkers, among whom were both philosophers and theologians. Theologians’ interest in the deist thought is explained by the fact that in the above-mentioned period there was no clear understanding which domain the phenomenon of deism should be attributed to. The article also gives a detailed list of defi nitions of the terms deist and deism as well as their chronology, which makes up a signifi cant contribution to the study of the topic. The author of the article argues that despite the lack of a uniform understanding of the religious philosophy of deism, various authors outlined several general concepts, due to which the universally accepted defi nitions appeared. Besides, during these centuries clear views started to develop as to the multifaceted character of the deist thought, which resulted in the necessity to establish boundaries between various types of both deism itself and adjacent types of religious philosophy. The latter include atheist and theist philosophies, which, depending on specific authors, became close to or remote from one another. The conclusion of the paper summarises the main perspectives in viewing deism in the 16th — 18th centuries.

Keywords

• деизм
• деист
• деистическая философия
• интерпретации деизма
• история деизма
• религиозная философия