In 1730 Matthew Tindal publishes Christianity as Old as the Creation, called the deist's bible. Tindal argues that the religion of nature is perfect and unchangeable, that revealed religion can only republish it, and that a gospel adding new duties or doctrines beyond reason is thereby disproved. The replies to Tindal fill shelves for a generation.
Tagged: Deism
The Event
- Date
- 1730 (exact)
- Era
- The Deist Controversy; Standard periodization of deist history
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Deism
- Streams
- Deism
- Key figures
- Matthew Tindal
- Key texts
- Christianity as Old as the Creation
Connections
Primary Sources
- Tindal, Matthew. Christianity as Old as the Creation. London, 1730.
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-1364; 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.