An Elegant And Learned Discourse Of The Light Of Nature

These sermons by Nathaniel Culverwell, a significant and influential moral theologian of the seventeenth century, were delivered in 1645-46 at the chapel of Emmanuel College of Cambridge University. The sermons, which examine the relationship between reason and faith, form one of the first attempts in English Protestantism to stress the role of reason in ethics and to develop a doctrine of natural law. Culverwell represents a crucial intersection in the discussion of reason and faith. While providing a link between the Calvinist dependence on faith and grace and the Enlightenment dependence on reason and humanism, Culverwell's Discourse is a picture of the world on the brink of the Enlightenment. This Discourse was crucial to the development of a theoretical grounding for individual challenges to established authorities, both political and ecclesiastical, and thus to the development of modern theories of liberty and responsibility.