William Godwin’s religious sense
Citation
Export citationWeston, R. (2009). William Godwin’s religious sense. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 32(3), 407-423.
Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/3310
Abstract
The anarchist philosopher, novelist and historian William Godwin (1756-1836) began life in a devout Dissenting or nonconformist family. As a young man he trained for the ministry, before losing his faith and turning atheist in 1792. Over the subsequent years of his long life Godwin continued to ponder the moral value of religious belief in general and of Christianity in particular. In his later religious writings Godwin insists that myth, superstition and religious belief are not intrinsically defective but are problematic only to the extent to which they undermine personal integrity and social solidarity.
Date
2009Type
Publisher
Wiley InterScience