Locke and Biblical Hermeneutics

The volume presents illuminating research carried out by international scholars of Locke and the early modern period. The essays address the theoretical and historical contexts of Locke's analytical methodology and come together in a multidisciplinary approach that sets biblical hermeneutics in relation to his philosophical, historical, and political thought, and to the philological and doctrinal culture of his time. The contextualization of Locke's biblical hermeneutics within the contemporary reading of the Bible contributes to the analysis of the figure of Christ and the role of Paul's theology in political and religious thought from the seventeenth century to the Enlightenment. The volume sheds light on how Locke was appreciated by his contemporaries as a biblical interpreter and exegete. It also offers a reconsideration that overarches interpretations confined within specific disciplinary ambits to address Locke's thought in a global historic context.

Autorentext

Luisa Simonutti is senior research fellow in philosophy at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Milan. Her interests cover numerous aspects of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century philosophy and religion, Spinoza, Locke, Bayle and Le Clerc, and minor figures relevant in the historical philosophical field. Her research focus on the political-theological debate in modern times, on translation and on the cultural transfer between Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. She is the editor of numerous books including, Religious obedience and political resistance in the early modern world Jewish, Christian and Islamic philosophers addressing the Bible (Thurnhout: Brepols, 2014), *Le masque de l'écriture. Philosophie et traduction de la Renaissance aux Lumières (Geneva: Droz, 2015), *Barbarie in età moderna e contemporanea (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2018) and John Locke: les idées et les choses. Avec le manuscrit inédit 'Notes upon Mr. John Lock's Essay Concerning Human Understanding' de William Whiston fils (Milan: Mimésis, 2019).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Religious Way of John Locke from the 'Essay' to the 'Paraphrase' (16901704).- 3. Boyle's Influence on Locke's study of the way to salvation.- 4. Locke's Biblical Hermeneutics on Bodily Resurrection.- 5. Pauline Hours.- 6. Locke's Hermeneutics of Existence and his Representation of Christianity.- 7. Hermeneutics and the Reasonableness of Belief.- 8. The thread of discourse: Primary and Secondary Paraphrase in Locke's Hermeneutics.- 9. An intent and careful reading. How John Locke read his Bible.- 10. Spinoza, Locke, and Biblical Interpretation.- 11. Locke's Influence on the Exegesis of Peirce, Hallett, and Benson.- 12. St. Paul's Epistles from Covenants to Order in a Lockean context.- 13. Figures of Jesus from Locke to the Enlightenment.- 14. Locke's Pauline Hermeneutics: A Critical Review.