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Cambridge Platonists
Cambridge Platonists, a group of Anglican divines who had close connections with Cambridge University and tried to promote a rational form of Christianity in the tradition of Hooker and Erasmus. The group included Benjamin Whichcote (1609–83), whose writings, mostly sermons and letters, were published posthumously; John Smith (1618–52), a pupil of Whichcote and author of Select Discourses (1660); Henry More (1614–87), whose early poetry Psychodia Platonica (1642) has some remarkable passages, and whose prose works are profound and complex; Ralph Cudworth (1617–88), whose major work, The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678), must be regarded as the group's most detailed manifesto. Nathaniel Culverwell (d. 1651) is often included in the group, but his outlook differed from that of the rest, being more Calvinist and Aristotelian.
The aims of the group were to combat materialism, which was finding a forceful exponent in T. Hobbes, and to reform religion by freeing it from fanaticism and controversy. Drawing inspiration from Plato and Plotinus, they maintained that Sense reveals only appearances, Reality consists in ‘intelligible forms’ which are ‘ideas vitally protended or actively exerted from within itself’. They held furthermore that Revelation, the Rational Order of the Universe and human Reason were all in harmony, so that to search for Truth was to search for God. They rejected the Calvinist doctrine that human nature was deeply corrupt, capable of salvation only through the action of a Divine Grace granted to some and withheld from others, and saw Man as ‘deiform’, able to advance towards perfection through Reason and the imitation of Christ. These doctrines were presented in a rhetorical, often verbose manner which has masked their revolutionary character, but it is evident that they prepared the way for the Deism of the 18th cent. |
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-CambridgePlatonists.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-CambridgePlatonists.html |
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Cambridge Platonists
Cambridge Platonists group of English philosophers, centered at Cambridge in the latter half of the 17th cent. In reaction to the mechanical philosophy of Thomas Hobbes this school revived certain Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas. Chief among these was a mystical conception of the soul's relation to God and the belief that moral ideas are innate in man. Although tending toward mysticism, the school also stressed the importance of reason, maintaining that faith and reason differ only in degree. The assertion of the founder of the school, Benjamin Whichcote, that "the spirit in man is the cradle of the Lord" became the motto for the entire movement. Other leading members were Ralph Cudworth , Henry More , and John Smith.
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"Cambridge Platonists." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Cambridge Platonists." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-CambrdgPlt.html "Cambridge Platonists." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-CambrdgPlt.html |
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Cambridge Platonists
Cambridge Platonists. A group of Anglican philosophical theologians who flourished between 1633 and 1688. Prominent among them were Benjamin Whichcote (1609–83), John Smith (1618–52), Henry More (1614–87), and Ralph Cudworth (1617–88). They found in Platonism and the Greek Fathers a rational philosophical structure that enabled them to distance themselves from contemporary enthusiasm, whether Puritan or High Church, by submitting the claims of revelation to the bar of reason by which we participate directly in God's Logos (word, reason).
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JOHN BOWKER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-CambridgePlatonists.html JOHN BOWKER. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-CambridgePlatonists.html |
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Cambridge Platonists
Cambridge Platonists. A group of influential philosophical clergymen who flourished at Cambridge between 1633 and 1688. They stood between the Puritans and the High Anglicans and advocated tolerance and comprehension within the Church, basing their demand on their conception that reason was the arbiter both of natural and of revealed religion. They held that reason could judge the data of revelation by virtue of the indwelling of God in the mind. They included B. Whichcote, R. Cudworth, and H. More.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-CambridgePlatonists.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Cambridge Platonists." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-CambridgePlatonists.html |
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Platonists, Cambridge
Platonists, Cambridge, see Cambridge Platonists.
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Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Platonists, Cambridge." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Platonists, Cambridge." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PlatonistsCambridge.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Platonists, Cambridge." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-PlatonistsCambridge.html |
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