Lecture V - Jane Cooper, Baptising Epicurus in the Early Enlightenment

Baptising Epicurus in the Early Enlightenment: Christian Atomism and the Royal Society
I will discuss the Christian Atomism of the natural philosophers Walter Charleton, Robert Boyle, and Pierre Gassendi, who sought to fuse the Christian view of the providential God with the mechanical philosophy of the 17th century, in the context of burgeoning reception of the Epicurus in Europe. I will investigate the scientific as well as ethical arguments of the Christian atomists, looking in particular at Boyle's corpuscularianism and Charleton's influential treatise Epicurus' Morals (1656). In a time of great suspicion surrounding the Epicurean philosophy, which was frequently vulgarised by its opponents in the Church in England, Christian atomism characterised the fusion - often highly experimental - of scientific and religious ideas in the early Enlightenment.
Jane Cooper is an Examination Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford in English. Her thesis focuses on sublime poetics and natural philosophy in England, 1650-1740. Her research interests include satire, heresy, and the reception of Lucretius in early modern Europe.

[@JaneCooper190072]

Great... now I have my name connected with this confusion. ((The traditions of men)) You guys make understanding God and His plan so difficult, when it's so easy to understand that even a child can grasp it, our Creator foretold us all things.