ABSTRACT
One of the deepest and most abiding of Bayle’s philosophical preoccupations concerns the possibility of rational theology, or more specifi cally, the extent to which unaided reason is competent to secure the fundamental tenets of orthodox Christianity. Doubtless the most familiar aspect of this intellectual “obsession” is his tenacious criticism of traditional solutions to the problem of evil. Yet these discussions represent only one facet of Bayle’s engagement with the complex issues involved in the question of rational theology. In addition to the questions of mind-body dualism and personal immortality that I examined in the previous chapter, Bayle is equally concerned with our knowledge of the existence of a transcendent, immaterial God. The three topics are, of course, interrelated, and Bayle rarely treats them in complete isolation. As we have seen, the more qualifi ed defense of mind-body dualism that Bayle offers in his later years carries negative implications for any rational inference to the immortality of the soul. Nevertheless, Bayle continued to see the distinctness of mind and body as a necessary condition of rational theology and therefore one of the principal ramparts against the threat of materialistic atheism.
