Paine's Age of Reason

Thomas Paine publishes The Age of Reason in 1794 and 1795, a deist's case against revealed religion written for plain readers: I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. Banned and prosecuted in Britain, it becomes the freethought movement's first bestseller.

Tagged: Freethought Secular and Non-Theistic

The Event

Date

1794 (exact)

Era

The Enlightenment Settlement; Standard periodization of secular and non-religious history

Location

Paris and London; today France and the United Kingdom

Traditions

Secular

Streams

Freethought

Key figures

Thomas Paine

Key texts

The Age of Reason

Primary Sources

• Paine, The Age of Reason.

Secondary Sources

• Gottlieb, Anthony. The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy. New York: Liveright, 2016.
• Jacoby, Susan. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004.
• Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
• Zuckerman, Phil, ed. Atheism and Secularity. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010.

Provenance: HIST-1311; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-28.

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