Eleusis and Enlightenment: The Problem of the Mysteries in Eighteenth-century Thought (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 351)

The age of Enlightenment – the so-called age of reason – was also, paradoxically, the age of the Eleusinian mysteries. By attempting to reveal Demeter's secret cult, British, French, and German thinkers and freemasons of the eighteenth century revealed Christianity's pagan origins. Contents Acknowledgments Figures Introduction: The Age of the Mysteries 1 Freemasonry and Enlightenment 2 Summary of Chapters 1 The Word Mystery 1 Christianity not Mysterious: John Toland 2 The Trinitarian Controversy 3 Toland not Deist 4 ‘Unfolding Nature’s Mysteries, and discoursing on Religion’ 2 The Religion of the Patriarchs 1 William Stukeley: The Antiquarian Freemason 2 On the Mysterys 3 The Egyptian Society 4 True Noachida: James Anderson 5 Chance Rays of the Hebrews: Andrew Michael Ramsay 3 Law, Agriculture, and the Afterlife 1 William Warburton and the Ancient Legislators 2 Agriculture after the Deluge: Noël-Antoine Pluche 3 The Origin and the End of Society: Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger 4 The Common Temple of the World 1 The Venemous Cure: Voltaire and Warburton 2 The Festival of Universal Liberty: Antoine Court de Gébelin 3 Illuminating the Heathen World: Johann August Starck 4 The Essence of Religion: Nicolas-Marie Leclerc de Sept-Chênes 5 Christianity Revealed 1 St John the Egyptian: Christian Ernst Wünsch 2 The Elysium of Reason: Charles-François Dupuis Conclusion: Divided Testaments Bibliography Manuscripts Printed Primary Literature Secondary Literature Index