Abstract

In Reasons of Redemption, the author, departing from Locke's Epistola de Tolerantia carries out a philosophical investigation into the Lockean concept of reason throughout Locke's oeuvre, in order to see how Locke finally applies it in his New Testament theology, The Reasonableness of Christianity . The author first enquires into the Aristotelian concept of νοῦς, showing that the conception of rationality of the early Locke, in his manuscript Essays on the Law of Nature is describable with Peripatetic terminology. The author then discusses the several meanings the term 'reason' could carry in philosophical contexts in the works of Culverwel, Locke, Toland and Wollaston, emphasizing Culverwel's role in the formation of the English Enlightenment concept of reason . In the next points, the double nature of reason in the Lockean conception is examined: reason is human in that it is finite and does not intuit the real essence of substance, but divine insofar as it is universal, unchangeable and derives from God as an efficient though not as a material cause. The author finally analyzes Locke's arguments for the reasonableness of Christianity,suggesting that the infinite mercy of God, the ultimate 'reason' of redemption, may notbe qualified as 'rational' but is the infinite surplus and difference of God's essence