The Books of Nature and Scripture

Dick Popkin and James Force have attended a number of recent conferences where it was apparent that much new and important research was being done in the fields of interpreting Newton's and Spinoza's contributions as biblical scholars and of the relationship between their biblical scholarship and other aspects of their particular philosophies. This collection represents the best current research in this area. It stands alone as the only work to bring together the best current work on these topics. Its primary audience is specialised scholars of the thought of Newton and Spinoza as well as historians of the philosophical ideas of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

1. Introduction; R.H. Popkin. 2. Spinoza and Bible Scholarship; R.H. Popkin. 3. Comment on R. Popkin's Paper; A. Funkenstein. 4. Irrationality with or without Reason: the Analysis of Chapter XV of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus ; J. Lagrée. 5. More, Newton and the Language of Biblical Prophecy; S. Hutton. 6. `Making a Shew': Apocalyptic Hermeneutics and the Sociology of Christian Idolatry in the work of Isaac Newton and Henry More; R. Iliffe. 7. Newton on Kabbalah; M. Goldish. 8. One Prophet Interprets Another: Sir Isaac Newton and Daniel; M.Z. Kochavi. 9. `Pray do not Ascribe that Notion to me: God and Newton's Gravity; J. Henry. 10. Isaac Newton and Thomas Burnet: Biblical Criticism and the Crisis of late Seventeenth Century England; S. Mandelbrote. 11. The God of Abraham and Isaac (Newton); J.E. Force. 12. `Moses's Principia: Hutchinsonianism and Newton's Critics; D.S. Katz. Index.