Not by Reason Alone: Religion, History, and Identity in Early Modern Political Thought

This text seeks to create a new interpretation of early modern political thought. Where most accounts assume that modern thought followed a decisive break with Christianity, Joshua Mitchell asserts that the line between the age of faith and that of reason is not quite so clear. Instead, he argues that the ideas of Luther, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau draw on history, rather than reason alone, for a sense of political authority. This ambitious work crosses disciplinary boundaries to attempt to expose unsuspected connections between political theory, religion, and history.