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[books 2012] The Age of Reason
Dec. 16th, 2012 05:20 pm70. The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
This month's Bibliogoths read.
I can't swear that I haven't read this before as a lot of it sounded familiar - I had to read a lot of Enlightenment stuff for my PhD, which was after all in 18th century comparative religion (though specifically the discovery and reaction to Hinduism).
I've definitely read Paine's Rights of Man, though, so I came to it biased - Paine is my favourite revolutionary, and Enlightenment figure.
It's an important foundation text of Deism and a plea for rationalism and scientific mindedness. It's an easy to read, a plain speaking yet eloquent account of why the Bible is not the word of God. He is uncompromisingly radical, yet kind and humane. There are occasional turns of phrase that made me punch the air and shout "I love Thomas Paine!". Interestingly, it had the same effect on Jason - we don't often love the same thing that much.
Most importantly, this book is still radical and relevant today, if anything more so than it was back then. (When I went to the lecture by Andrew Marr, he said that he was a big fan of the Enlightenment and we should be re-discovering it more today as we as a society seem to have lost sight of its better ideals, so I've done my bit!)
It turned out that everyone who actually got round to reading it felt the same way we did, and there was discussion of forming a Thomas Paine Appreciation Society.
I have got my copy of The Rights of Man off the shelf, and ordered a copy of Common Sense.
This month's Bibliogoths read.
I can't swear that I haven't read this before as a lot of it sounded familiar - I had to read a lot of Enlightenment stuff for my PhD, which was after all in 18th century comparative religion (though specifically the discovery and reaction to Hinduism).
I've definitely read Paine's Rights of Man, though, so I came to it biased - Paine is my favourite revolutionary, and Enlightenment figure.
It's an important foundation text of Deism and a plea for rationalism and scientific mindedness. It's an easy to read, a plain speaking yet eloquent account of why the Bible is not the word of God. He is uncompromisingly radical, yet kind and humane. There are occasional turns of phrase that made me punch the air and shout "I love Thomas Paine!". Interestingly, it had the same effect on Jason - we don't often love the same thing that much.
Most importantly, this book is still radical and relevant today, if anything more so than it was back then. (When I went to the lecture by Andrew Marr, he said that he was a big fan of the Enlightenment and we should be re-discovering it more today as we as a society seem to have lost sight of its better ideals, so I've done my bit!)
It turned out that everyone who actually got round to reading it felt the same way we did, and there was discussion of forming a Thomas Paine Appreciation Society.
I have got my copy of The Rights of Man off the shelf, and ordered a copy of Common Sense.
