This is a cultural and intellectual biography of a neglected but important figure, Thomas Morgan (1671/2–1743). Educated at Bridgewater Academy, he was active as Presbyterian preacher, medical practitioner, and one of the first who called himself a Christian Deist. Morgan was not only a harbinger of the disparagement of the Old Testament, but also a prolific pamphleteer about things religious, and a publisher of medical books. He received praise for his medical work, but a negative press for his theological visions, and he ended as a forgotten figure in history; this book restores an overlooked writer to his due place in history. It is the first modern biography of Morgan and its readership comprises historians of deism, the enlightenment, the eighteenth century, theology and the church, Presbyterianism, and medical history.
Introduction: A forgotten Christian Deist: Thomas Morgan 1. Chapter One: Life of Thomas Morgan 2. Morgan’s early publications 3. The moral philosopher 4. Contemporary reactions to The moral philosopher 5. Morgan’s answers to his critics 6. Morgan’s Physico-Theology 7. Reactions after Morgan’s death in England and abroad 8. Morgan as a harbinger of the disparagement of the Old Testament 9. Conclusion
Biography
Jan van den Berg was born in The Hague, studied Theology at Free University Amsterdam, and was lecturer of the Old Testament at the Postgraduate School for Theology of the Methodist University of São Paulo in Brazil. He was minister of the Protestant Church in Oss, Netherlands, and afterwards in Brasschaat, Belgium. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, November 8th 2018.
