‘SCEPTICISM IN EXCESS’: GIBBON AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHRISTIANITY

Since the appearance of volume I of The decline and fall of the Roman empire in 1776, the religion of Edward Gibbon has been subject to intense debate. He has been variously identified as an atheist, a deist, even as a somewhat detached Christian. Examination of his relations, both personal and scho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Historical journal 1998-03, Vol.41 (1), p.179-199
Main Author: YOUNG, B. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
Attitudes
Christian history
Christianity
Churches
Clergy
Divinity
Edward Gibbon
England
Folk religions
Gibbon, Edward
Historians
History
History of religion
Judaism
Orthodox Church
Religion
Skepticism
Theology
Truth
United Kingdom
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Summary:Since the appearance of volume I of The decline and fall of the Roman empire in 1776, the religion of Edward Gibbon has been subject to intense debate. He has been variously identified as an atheist, a deist, even as a somewhat detached Christian. Examination of his relations, both personal and scholarly, with the varieties of religion and irreligion current in eighteenth-century Britain leads to the conclusion that he remained resolutely critical of all such positions. He did not share the convictions of dogmatic freethinkers, still less those of determined atheists. The product of a nonjuring family, Gibbon benefited from the scholarly legacy of several high church writers, while maintaining a critical attitude towards the claims of Anglican orthodoxy. It was through the deliberate and ironical adoption of the idiom of via media Anglicanism, represented by such theologians as the clerical historian John Jortin, that Gibbon developed a woundingly sceptical appraisal of the history of the early church. This stance made it as difficult for his contemporaries to identify Gibbon's religion as it has since proved to be for modern historians. Gibbon appreciated the central role of religion in shaping history, but he remained decidedly sceptical as to Christianity's ultimate status as revealed and unassailable truth.
ISSN:0018-246X
1469-5103
DOI:10.1017/S0018246X97007693