Hobbes Leviathan And Of The Kingdom Of Darkness

Hobbes' Leviathan is divided into four parts: Of Man, Of Commonwealth, Of a Christian Commonwealth, and Of the Kingdom of Darkness. Overall Hobbes tried to explain the reasons a commonwealth may govern men, and how to create the best way for this type government to function in order to contain the desires of its denizens. Leviathan represents a key turning point in Hobbes's perspectives on religion, since for the first time he becomes fully aware of what may be called the political problem of religion, as humans give religion such a prominent place in political conversation. To begin, in Chapter 12 of Leviathan, Hobbes opens with the observation that religion is found only in man, and derives directly from these two characteristic traits
As a solution, Hobbes demonstrates though his reading of scripture, that the kingdom of God is only present when the world ends, and hence until then only the civil sovereign is king in this world, and thus the sovereign must also be the head of all religion. Hobbes cites the words in scripture of Jesus in order show that Christ will not rule as king until the world ends, explaining that during the time of Adam and Eve, and later Noah and Abraham, God ruled directly over man. More so, God made a direct covenant with the Israelis to rule over them through the prophet of Moses and his successors. Eventually, the Israelis asked for a human King to rule over then, to which God approved and the Kingdom of God left the Earth, not to return until the end of the natural
Hence, the belief in two masters in this world is contrary to peace and also contrary to logical and religious truth. However, Hobbes maintained that his arguments are in harmony with Christianity. According to him, Christianity constitutes a solution to the political problem of religion which may lead to the establishment of a purely rational, nonreligious, form of politics. The political problem of religion for Hobbes is that it is forever inseparable from the question of politics. As mentioned above Hobbes demonstrated the difficulty of obeying both the law of men and the law of God, and as a solution Hobbes invoked reason to authorize the sovereign as the ultimate biblical