“Obey God’s natural laws as duties”

Text by professor Timo Airaksinen

The super-norm is, of course, "Obey God's natural laws as duties," which presupposes the knowledge and recognition of the right God and right religion, like Berkeley's own type of Anglicanism.[i] The spread of sects and denominational alternatives in the protestant world was and still is extensive indeed along with many internal variations within a given denomination. Yet, doctrinal borders are clear and fixed making any kind of compromise difficult. Hobbes also discusses the problem of an infidel sovereign: he says an infidel sovereign must be obeyed but only seemingly. One can correct one's personal situation by means of a minimal confession of true faith and silently says something like "Jesus is the Christ" or something like "He is the Lord born from the Virgin etc."[ii] This saves one's eternal soul and preserves one's earthly life. Berkeley instead recommends accepting the punishment, which is another example of the harshness of the doctrine PO teaches. The situation resembles that of the early Christian martyrs in Rome: they were asked to give what belongs to the Caesar, namely, his sacred rites – after that one was free to go and to give their god what belongs to him. Yet many zealous believers chose death, to the dismay of the Roman authorities.[iii] PO does not go that far. (PO 49).

[i] On the nature of Berkeley's religiosity, see David Berman, "The Distrustful Philosopher: Berkeley between the Devils and the Deep Blue Sea of Faith." In Silvia Parigi (Ed.), George Berkeley: Religion and Science in the Age of Enlightenment. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010, pp. 141-157. Berman says his religion is "based entirely on reason" (p. 141); one also can argue it is natural religion. Cf. Daniele Bertini, "Berkeley, Theology and Bible Scholarship." In Parigi (Ed.), George Berkeley, 2010, pp. 123-139.

[ii] See Karsten Fischer, "Hobbes, Schmitt and the Paradox of Religious Liberty." In J. Tralau (Ed.), Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt: The Politics of Order and Myth. New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 141-58, p. 151.

[iii] See Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age: The Cristian Destruction of the Ancient World. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2018, Ch. 5: The Deranged Men.