Abstract
When I told an eminent American philosopher that I was working on Newton’s religious writings, he first expressed the view that it was scandalous that the vast number of Newton manuscripts on the subject had not been published, and then asked me, “Frankly, are these writings of interest because they are by Newton, or are they important in their own right?”1 To answer this, one has to consider what they represented in their own time, and what influence, if any, they had on theology then and later on.
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References
Works of Newton
Chronology: The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. London, 1728.
Correspondence: The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H.W. Turnbull. Cambridge, 1961.
Observations: Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. London, 1733.
Opera: Opera quae exstant omnia, Commentariis illustrabat S. Horsley. London, 1779-85.
Two Letters: Two Letters to... M. Le Clerc... the former containing a dissertation upon the reading of the Greek text, 1 John v.7; the latter upon that ofl Timothy viii.16. London, 1754.
Other authors and scholarly literature
Bloch, R. H., 1950. Visionary Republic. Millennial Theories in American Thought, 1756-1800. Cambridge.
Boudinot, E., 1801. The Age of Revelation, or the Age of Reason shown to be an Age of Infidelity. Philadelphia.
1—, 1815. The Second Advent, or the Coming of the Messiah in Glory shown to be a Scripture Doctrine, and Taught by Divine Revelation from the Beginning of the World by an American Layman. Trenton, N.J.
Boudinot, J. J., ed. 1971. The Life, Public Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias Boudinot. New York.
Boyd, G. A., 1952. Elias Boudinot, Patriot and Statesman, 1742–1821. Princeton.
Clarke, S., 1705. A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God. London.
Crawford, C., 1784. Observations on Negro Slavery. Philadelphia.
2—, 1788. Observations on the Downfall of the Papal Power and Consequent End. Philadelphia.
3—, 1793. Observations upon the Revolution in France. Boston and Philadelphia.
4—, 1800. An Essay upon the Eleventh Chapter of the Revelation, in which it is shown that the words “And in the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand” relate to Jerusalem, and not to Rome or France. Philadelphia.
5—, 1801. An Essay on the Propagation of the Gospel; in which These and Numerous Facts and Arguments Adduced to Prove that Many of the Indians in America are Descended from the Ten Tribes. Philadelphia.
6—, 1817. Three Letters to the Hebrew Nation. London.
Cuninghame, W., 1842. The Political Destiny of the Earth as Revealed in the Bible. London.
Dobbs, B. J. T., 1975. The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy, or “The Hunting of the Green Lyon.” Cambridge.
Faber, G. S., 1808. A General and Connected View of the Prophecies, Relative to the Conversion, Restoration, Union and Future Glory of the Houses of Judah and Israel; the Progress, and Final Overthrow, of the Antichristian Confederacy in the Land of Palestine; and the Ultimate General Diffusion of Christianity. London.
7—, 1853a. The Revival of the French Emperorship Anticipated from the Necessity of Prophecy. London.
8—, 1853b. The Predicted Downfall of the Turkish Power. The Preparation for the Return of the Ten Tribes. London.
Firth, K. R., 1979. The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain 1530-1645. Oxford.
Force, J. E., 1985. William Whiston: Honest Newtonian. Cambridge.
Frere, 1826. The Combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Ezra and St. John. London. (1st ed. London 1814.)
Froom, L., 1950-54. The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, 4 vols. Washington, D.C.
Hartley, D., 1749. Observations on Man. His Frame, his Duty and his Expectations. London.
Hill, C., 1988. “Till the Conversion of the Jews,” in Popkin 1988, 12–36.
Irving, H., 1826. Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed of God. Glasgow.
Jordan, W., 1968. White over Black. Chapel Hill. N.C.
Katz, D. S., 1982. Philo-Semitism and the Readmission of the Jews to England 1603–1655. Oxford.
McGuire, J. E., and M. Tamny, 1983. Certain Philosophical Questions: Newton’s Trinity Notebook. Cambridge.
Manuel, F., 1963. Isaac Newton, Historian. Cambridge.
9—, 1974. The Religion of Isaac Newton. Oxford.
Newton, T., 1766. Dissertations on the Prophecies which have Remarkably been Fulfilled, and at this Time are Fulfilling in the World, 3rd ed. London.
Nicolson, M. H., 1930. Conway Letters: The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More and their Friends 1642–1684. New Haven.
Popkin, R. H., 1980. “Jewish Messianism and Christian Millenarianism,” in Culture and Politics from Puritanism to the Enlightenment, ed. P. Zagorin. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 67–90.
10—, 1984. “Divine Causality: Newton, the Newtonians and Hume,” in Greene Centennial Studies, Essays Presented to Donald Greene in the Centennial Year of the University of Southern California, ed. P.J. Korshin and R.R. Allen. Charlottesville, 40–56.
11—, 1986a. “The Third Force in Seventeenth-Century Thought: Skepticism, Science and Millenarianism,” in The Prism of Science, ed. E. UllmannMargalit. Dordrecht: Reidel, 21–50.
12—, 1986b. “The Triumphant Apocalypse and the Catastrophic Apocalypse,” in Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Humanity, ed. A. Cohen and S. Lee. Totow N.J., 131–50.
13—, 1987. “The Age of Reason versus the Age of Revelation. Two Critics of Tom Paine: David Levi and Elias Boudinot,” in Deism, Masonry, and the Enlightenment. Essays Honoring Alfred Owen Aldridge, ed. J. A. L. Lemay. Newark, Del., 158–70.
14—, 1988. Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought 1650-1800. Leiden.
Priestley J., 1787. Letters to the Jews. Birmingham.
15—, 1789. Letters to the Philosophers and Politicians of France. London.
16—, 1794. The Present State of Europe Compared with Ancient Prophecies. London.
Rossi, P., 1985. The Dark Abyss of Time. Chicago.
Sandeen, E. R., 1968. The Origins of Fundamentalism. Philadelphia.
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Westminster Confession = Anon., 1641. The Confession of Faith.... Composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines Sitting at Westminster. London.
ai]Whiston, W., 1708. The Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies. Cambridge.
Whiston, W., 1749. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston. London.
Whittlesley, W. L., 1981. “Elias Boudinot,” in Dictionary of American Biography, 2:477–78
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Popkin, R.H. (1992). Newton and the Origins of Fundamentalism. In: Ullmann-Margalit, E. (eds) The Scientific Enterprise. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 146. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2688-5_15
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