Leviathan: III.XLIII

III.XLIII What are the core tenets of Christianity, the sine qua non that one must hold in order to be identified as a “Christian”? Revolutions in Christian…

Leviathan: III.XLII.110–35

III.XLII.110–35 Having refuted most of Bellarmine’s claims about the authority of the pope, we might ask whether we can at least grant that the pope is…

Leviathan: III.XLII.89–109

III.XLII.89–109 Continuing his response to Bellarmine’s view of the authority of the pope, in today’s passage Hobbes refutes the idea that the pope is “the supreme…

Leviathan: III.XLII.66–88

III.XLII.66–88 The key to understanding Hobbes’s view of the church in a post-Constantine world is this line: For a Church and a commonwealth of Christian people…

Leviathan: III.XLII.49–65

III.XLII.49–65 The pre-Constantine establishment church was, according to Hobbes, pretty unestablished. In his view there were two broad categories of offices in this early church: “magisterial”…

Leviathan: III.XLII.20–48

III.XLII.20–48* If the sovereign of the church has the authority to offer or withhold baptism (based on a confession of faith and a life in conformity…

Leviathan: III.XLII.1-19

III.XLII.1–19 Just what should the sovereignty of Christ look like in this world? That is a question that ultimately deals with church polity—or the “Power Ecclesiastical.”…

Leviathan: III.XLI

III.XLI Now that the sovereignty of the Kingdom of God that was lost by the Old Testament kings and priests has been regained in the person…

Leviathan: III.XL

III.XL Thinking about the structure of the relationship between the sovereign and the Kingdom of God requires that Christians approach from two complementary perspectives: one based…

Leviathan: III.XXXIX

III.XXXIX After much introductory material, we finally get to a surprisingly brief beginning of a definition of the church. And as with so much of the Leviathan…