1st Edition

The History of Evil in the Early Modern Age 1450–1700 CE

By Daniel Robinson Copyright 2018
    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    The third volume of The History of Evil encompasses the early modern era from 1450–1700. This revolutionary period exhibited immense change in both secular knowledge and sacred understanding. It saw the fall of Constantinople and the rise of religious violence, the burning of witches and the drowning of Anabaptists, the ill treatment of indigenous peoples from Africa to the Americas, the reframing of formal authorities in religion, philosophy, and science, and it produced profound reflection on good and evil in the genius of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Teresa of Avila, and the Cambridge Platonists.



    This superb treatment of the history of evil during a formative period of the early modern era will appeal to those with interests in philosophy, theology, social and political history, and the history of ideas.



    Editors and contributors



    Series Introduction





     



    Introduction



    Daniel Robinson





     



    1. Towards a History of Evil: Inquisition and Fear in the Medieval West



    Teofilo F. Ruiz





    2. Witchcraft



    Daniel Robinson





    3. Medicine



    Daniel Robinson





    4. Magic and the Sciences during an Age of Change
    Peter Maxwell-Stuart





    5. Niccolò Machiavelli



    Cary J. Nederman and Guillaume Bogiaris





    6. Luther



    Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth





    7. John Calvin on Evil



    Paul Helm





    8. Evil within and Evil without: Teresa of Avila Battles the Devil



    Bárbara Mujica





    9. Anabaptists



    Gerald J. Mast





    10. Francis Bacon



    John Henry





    11. Shakespeare and Evil
    Claire Landis





    12. Hobbes and Evil



    Geoffrey Gorham





    13. Descartes on Evil



    Zbigniew Janowski





    14. Milton



    Dennis Danielson





    15. Baruch Spinoza on Evil



    Eugene Marshall





    16. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz



    Marcy P. Lascano





    17. Cambridge Platonism



    Charles Taliaferro





    18. Indigenous Peoples



    Kenneth H. Lokensgard





    19. Religious Authority and Power: Rituals of Conflict in Africa



    Bala Saho





    20. Representations



    Charles Taliaferro and Jil Evans





    Index 

    Biography

    Daniel Robinson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University, USA and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University, UK.



    Chad Meister is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Bethel College, USA.



    Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St Olaf College, USA.

    This excellent collection provides a road map for those interested in studying the concept of evil in early modern culture. Evil for whom, one might ask? Evil according to what creed, and in what circumstance? Such questions animate the book’s principal aim, which is to show the period’s wide variety of perspectives on the subject, from the intensely theological to the profoundly secular, from the Devil to Thomas Hobbes. The volume is easy to recommend for its depth and vitality, and—too—because the editors allow room for the possibility that evil is not solely a historical phenomenon. Ryan Stark, Corban University, USA