College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

3. Why Religion, Faith, and Freedom Proved Hard to Reconcile

Third Lecture of Professor Jeffrey Stout's Gifford Lecture Series.

Event Details

Date: Thursday 4 May 2017, 5.30 - 6.30pm

The lecture may be followed by questions. Latest finishing time is 7pm.

Venue: Business School Auditorium, 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JS

Lecture abstract

Aquinas took religion to be a moral virtue, acquired by repeated acts of pious reverence and directed toward proper this-worldly and supernatural ends. He defined faith as a theological virtue, a divine gift that serves to orient one’s intellect rightly to God’s revelation. Early moderns who distinguished religion from faith in this way fell into conflict. Concluding that the received ideals of religion, faith, and freedom could not be reconciled, Locke proposed a separation of church from magistrate, Deists separated true religion from faith, and Hobbes redefined freedom.

Lecture video

Related links

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