Michael Creed
Michael Creed
Michael Creed

Christian Politics and Civil Philosophy
An interpretation of Hobbes’s Leviathan

Author: Dr. Sanford Wood
Genre: Educational | Philosophy
Page Count: 234
Word Count: 69,145
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022940472
ISBNs
Paperback: 978-1-64456-497-4
Mobi: 978-1-64456-498-1
ePub: 978-1-64456-499-8
This study demonstrates the overall coherence of the
moral and political teaching of Leviathan.
Hobbes takes the low view of human nature. He depicts most men as mean, petty, and fearful. He also rejects the traditional view that morality is the pursuit of certain goods that are objective. By contrast, Hobbes says that all goods are relative, and thus that all obligations must be self-imposed. He also claims that no man can have a duty to do anything for which he does not have a sufficient motive. On this basis he constructs a political doctrine of absolute sovereignty as the most reliable method of satisfying the human need for security and comfort. The distinction between Christian politics and civil philosophy is based on Hobbes's recognition of two independent and complementary sources of truth, divine revelation and natural reason.