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    History: Priestcraft

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    Writing of Spinoza, Jonathan Israel (Radical Enlightenment) notes that Spinoza outlines “the concept of priestcraft as a system of organized imposture and deception, rooted in credulousness and superstitution, which loomed so large in the subsequent history of the Enlightenment and was to receive massive amplification in the books on ancient oracles and priestcraft published by Blount, Van Dale, and Fontenelle in the 1680s.”

    Perhaps it’s out there, but if not, someone needs to do a thorough study of this.  It would involve showing the continuities and discontinuities between the Reformation polemic against Catholic priesthood and the Enlightenment.  It would also be touching the foundations of the erection of modern culture.

    For where there is a change in priesthood, there is also a change in law.

    posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 10:32 am