ABSTRACT
The writers known as the English deists were able to make contributions to modernity because of specific historical conjunctures and conditions, some of which passed away after their deaths. They were able to 'think freely' because Protestant Enlightenment had won out in a series of power struggles for control of the English state and its institutions. Many of these writers combined rationalism, naturalism and scepticism about revealed religion, but in the longer term these could undermine each other. These writers were concerned to undermine the cultural authority of revealed religion, which they saw as authorizing superstitious beliefs and practices. Displacing the authority of revealed religion over thinking and scholarship as well as political, social and cultural life was important everywhere in Europe. Matthew Tindal was also concerned to promote rational approaches to the management of politics, religion and morality in a Protestant state.
