I found myself with nothing to read and 45 minutes to wait. Momentarily panicked, I was relieved to discover, in the glove compartment of my car, an old copy of The New Atlantis, from Fall 2005.
I settled on a long essay entitled, “Francis Bacon’s God,” adapted from a book by a Gator political philosopher named Stephen A. McKnight. In it he performs a riveting exegesis of Bacon’s mythological work from which this fine journal takes its name. The burden of his subtle argument is that the current consensus about Bacon and Christianity presents him in a far too cynical light; presents him, indeed, as a full-on subversive of the Christian faith. McKnight does not deny that Bacon opposed with great firmness the Aristotelian-Thomist philosophical tradition, which so often formed the foil for various project of modern extravagance, but he does dispute that this opposition to antiquity extended into theology or scriptural authority. Well worth a read.
Comments (3)
Interesting.
In my studies at Berkeley & Michigan, Bacon was never even mentioned, let alone read, so far as I can recall. But the one time that I interviewed at a Catholic school, they were all on fire to know what I thought of him.
Same deal with Plotinus.
It made for a rather strange & unsettling interview.
By the way - what's a "Gator political philosopher?" Is there some typo here?
Posted by steve burton | October 20, 2009 3:13 PM
University of Florida.
Posted by Paul J Cella | October 20, 2009 3:22 PM
Eh, should have known. Sports talk.
Posted by steve burton | October 20, 2009 4:49 PM