Debating Divinity

Cicero’s Theological Dialogues in Enlightenment England

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The unrivalled influence of Cicero on pre-modern Western thought is well-known, yet there remain spheres where the Roman’s significance has been left unexplored. Debating Divinity recovers for the first time the essential role played by Cicero’s theological dialogues – De natura deorum and De divinatione – in the religious debates of Enlightenment England. As early modern thinkers wrestled with the challenges posed to religious orthodoxy by heterodox wielding of nature, science and reason, Cicero’s theological dialogues became the surprising field on which new ideas were contested. Combining evidence from both the scholarly tradition and the wider discourse, Debating Divinity reconstructs in full the fascinating place of these dialogues in English intellectual history.
Copyright Year:
2026
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-69025-7
Publication:
30 Mar 2026
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-21264-0
Publication:
30 Apr 2026
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Katherine A. East is Senior Lecturer in the History of Radical Ideas at Newcastle University. She has published widely on the intellectual history of early modern Britain, the history of scholarship, and the intellectual and cultural legacy of Cicero.
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations: Cicero’s Works
A Note on Latin Text and Translations

Introduction
 1 De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, and Cicero in the Enlightenment
 2 The Natural Religion Debates
 3 Reason and Scepticism
 4 Argument and Approach
 1 Cicero’s Theological Project: Introducing De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione
 1 Composing the Dialogues
 2 The Theological Project
 3 Decoding De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione
 2 The Transmission of De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione up to 1660
 1 The Early History of the Dialogues
 2 The Transition to Print
 3 Interpreting the Texts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

3 Rational Witness: Cicero, Balbus, and the Being and Attributes of God, 1660–1683
 1 Lescaloperius and the Rational Man’s One God
 2 Reason among the Pagans: Cicero as Witness to the Being of God
 3 Balbus: Nature and Providence
 4 Reading Balbus: Conflict and Confirmation

4 Recruiting Cotta: Cicero and the Rise of Rational Religion, 1680–1718
 1 Cicero and the Case for Imposture
 2 The Freethought Debate in 1713
 3 Editorial Intervention: John Davies’ Edition of De Natura Deorum in 1718

5 Cicero the Sceptic? Marcus, Prophecy, and the Anti-Rational Cotta, 1721–1741
 1 Editing Cotta and Marcus in 1721
 2 Marcus and Prophecy
 3 Tindal, His Critics, and the Sufficiency of Reason
 4 1741: Contesting Academic Scepticism

6 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Scholars and researchers working on early modern intellectual history, the history of scholarship, Cicero and Roman religion, and the classical tradition. Keywords: Cicero; Enlightenment; early modern; religion; reason; natural religion; natural theology; prophecy; divination; gods; ancient religion; Anthony Collins; Matthew Tindal; Herbert of Cherbury; scholarship; editions; translations; Conyers Middleton; William Whiston; John Spencer; idolatry; freethought/freethinkers; John Davies; Petrus Lescaloperius.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xiv, 276 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004690257

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