ABSTRACT

The third volume of The History of Evil encompasses the early modern era from 1450–1700. This revolutionary period exhibited immense change in both secular knowledge and sacred understanding. It saw the fall of Constantinople and the rise of religious violence, the burning of witches and the drowning of Anabaptists, the ill treatment of indigenous peoples from Africa to the Americas, the reframing of formal authorities in religion, philosophy, and science, and it produced profound reflection on good and evil in the genius of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Teresa of Avila, and the Cambridge Platonists.

This superb treatment of the history of evil during a formative period of the early modern era will appeal to those with interests in philosophy, theology, social and political history, and the history of ideas.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|15 pages

Towards a history of evil

Inquisition and fear in the medieval West

chapter 2|10 pages

Witchcraft

chapter 3|9 pages

Medicine

chapter 6|13 pages

Luther

chapter 7|13 pages

John Calvin on evil

chapter 8|18 pages

Evil within and evil without

Teresa of Avila battles the devil

chapter 9|16 pages

Anabaptists

chapter 10|10 pages

Francis Bacon

chapter 11|29 pages

Shakespeare and evil

chapter 12|11 pages

Hobbes and evil

chapter 13|9 pages

Descartes on evil

chapter 14|16 pages

Milton

chapter 15|15 pages

Baruch Spinoza on evil

chapter 16|16 pages

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

chapter 17|13 pages

Cambridge Platonism

chapter 18|18 pages

Indigenous peoples

chapter 19|13 pages

Religious authority and power

Rituals of conflict in Africa

chapter 20|19 pages

Representations