ABSTRACT
For most early moderns, the natural world is material: matter comprises rocks, mountains, and bones. Most early moderns also hold that God is not material. How, then, does God relate to matter? This chapter explores and contrasts the answers offered by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, and Catharine Cockburn. For Cavendish, matter is thinking and extended: God’s immateriality renders him unique, avoiding any threat of polytheism. For Conway, all created substance is fundamentally spiritual, allowing it to increase in perfection and grow closer to God. Finally, on Cockburn’s dualism, there are material and immaterial created substances—related to God through a great chain of being.
