BLOUNT, CHARLES. — English Deist, born in 1654, died in 1693. A rigorously rationalist critic, he devalued every criterion of apologetics concerning the supernatural, grounding his so-called Christianity, a pure religion of nature, solely on reason. The principal inspirations for his thought in the religious and socio-political fields were Herbert of Cherbury and Hobbes.
Principal work: Anima mundi, or an historical narration of the opinions of the ancients concerning man's soul after this life (1679).
BIBL.: G. V. Lechler, Gesch. des englischen Deismus, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1841, p. 114 ff. Ugo Viglino