TINDAL, MATTHEW. - English philosopher, b. at Beer Ferrers (Devonshire) in 1656, d. at Oxford in 1733.
Having converted to Catholicism, he returned to Anglicanism in 1687. Of his numerous writings, notable are: The Rights of the christian Church against the Romish and all other priests who claim an independent power over it (published anonymously in 1706; despite its condemnation, it went through four editions in three years) and, chief among them all, Christianity as old as the Creation (1730), which had a vast European influence, especially in Germany, where it was translated in 1741. This work was for many years the Bible of English deism (v.).
T. identifies Christianity and natural religion: human nature is immutable like God, who has revealed himself to reason since creation; hence positive Revelation is superfluous, inasmuch as it adds nothing to natural revelation (the Gospel is "the republication of the law of nature"). There is no difference between morality and religion, inasmuch as the reason of things (according to which one acts), considered in itself and as the law of God, is identical.
Bibliography2 workscf. the fundamental works on the Enlightenment: E. Cassirer, La filos. dell'Illuminismo, trad. it., Florence 1935; P. Hazard, La philos. au
BIBL.: cf. the fundamental works on the Enlightenment: E. Cassirer, La filos. dell'Illuminismo, trad. it., Florence 1935; P. Hazard, La philos. au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1946. On eighteenth-century English philosophy: Leslie Stephen, English Thought in the eighteenth century, 2 vols., London 1902.
Sciacca, Michele Federico. “Tindal, matthew.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, col. 113. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954. https://azioneromana.com/article/tindal-matthew.
MLA
Sciacca, Michele Federico. “Tindal, matthew.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1954, col. 113. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/tindal-matthew.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec12_tindal_matthew,
author = {Sciacca, Michele Federico},
title = {Tindal, matthew},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XII},
pages = {113},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1954},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tindal-matthew}
}
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