Samuel Johnson and eighteenth-century thought
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Samuel Johnson and eighteenth-century thought
（Oxford English monographs）
Clarendon Press, 1988
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Note
Bibliography: p. [253]-265
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
An analysis of Johnson's relationship with the ethics and theology of the eighteenth century, examining the background to his views on a wide range of issues debated by the philosophers and divines of his age. The author emphasizes the ambivalence and contradiction inherent in the orthodoxy which Johnson espoused and challenges the assumption that Johnson's religious beliefs were unstable and filled with anxiety. He gained strength from the belief that he upheld an eminent tradition in Christian philosophy.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 Preserving the faith: the "sturdy prejudice" of eighteenth-century orthodoxy
- faith as a "rational assent"
- free-thinking and "scoffers" at religion. Part 2 The decline of natural religion: "true" deism - the ambiguity of apologetics
- the being and attributes of God
- charity as a virtue exclusive to Christianity. Part 3 New trends in ethics: Johnson's moral doctrine - "Christian epicureanism"
- free-will. Part 4 Suffering and the universal order: the correspondence between vice and suffering
- "universal optimism" and divine government
- stoicism and Christian patience. Part 5 Pride and the pursuit of applause: virtue as a deceitful contrivance of pride
- the regulation of the love of fame and applause
- social custom and immutable truth
- Johnson's new standard of human greatness.
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