In 1784 Ethan Allen, the Vermont soldier of fortune, publishes Reason: The Only Oracle of Man, the first avowedly deist book printed in America. Allen attacks revealed religion root and branch and argues for a God of nature known by reason alone. Much of the edition burns in the printer's shop; the surviving copies make Allen the scandal and banner of American deism.
Tagged: Deism
The Event
- Date
- 1784 (exact)
- Era
- The Revolutionary Age; Standard periodization of deist history
- Location
- Bennington; today Bennington, Vermont
- Traditions
- Deism
- Streams
- Deism
- Key figures
- Ethan Allen
- Key texts
- Reason: The Only Oracle of Man
Connections
Primary Sources
- Allen, Ethan. Reason: The Only Oracle of Man. Bennington, 1784.
Secondary Sources
- Barnett, S. J. The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
- Byrne, Peter. Natural Religion and the Nature of Religion: The Legacy of Deism. London: Routledge, 1989.
- Walters, Kerry S. The American Deists: Voices of Reason and Dissent in the Early Republic. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Provenance: HIST-1368; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
Deism
Deism holds that reason and nature reveal one Creator who made the world and its laws, then left it to run without miracles or special revelation.