BOOK: Simon P. KENNEDY, Reforming the Law of Nature. The Secularisation of Political Thought, 1532–1689 [Edinburgh Studies in Comparative Political Theory] (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021), ISBN 9781474493987, 216 p.

 

(image source: Edinburgh UP)

On the book:

Uncovers the relationship between early modern natural law ideas and secular conceptions of politics Provides a fresh interpretation of the historical relationship between early modern developments in natural law theories and important features of modern political thought, including secularization and liberalism Offers a fresh, interdisciplinary reading of early Reformed Protestant natural law jurisprudence and political thought Reframes the relationship of the Reformed Protestant tradition to both medieval and Enlightenment political thought and jurisprudence in a way that has a lasting impact on scholarly discourse in law, intellectual history, theology, and political science Reforming the Law of Nature is a stimulating study of the development of natural law ideas in the early modern period, uncovering their connection to conceptions of the origins of politics. It brings sixteenth and seventeenth century jurisprudence, theology and political philosophy into conversation with one another to uncover the ways in which developments in political thought affected the emergence of a secular understanding of political life.

On the author:

Simon P. Kennedy is Senior Lecturer in Humanities at Christian Heritage College and the Director of the Millis Institute, in Brisbane, Queensland. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland. He researches the intersections between political ideas, law, and religion.

Table of contents:

Introduction

1. John Calvin’s Political Naturalism
2. Richard Hooker’s Theistic Naturalism
3. Johannes Althusius and Political Society as Pactum
4. Thomas Hobbes: Reforming Nature, Profaning Politics
5. John Locke on Conventional Politics

Conclusion

 (source: Edinburgh University Press)