John Locke’s Natural religion
Steven Forde, University of North Texas
Prepared for Presentation to the American Political Science Association
Chicago, September 2004
heology has become the most contentious subject among students of John
Locke’s thought. John Dunn’s consideration of the apparent tensions among
Locke’s political, philosophical, and theological positions led him to the view
that Locke’s thought was “profoundly and exotically incoherent” (Dunn 1969, 29). It was
the apparently unsatisfactory character of Locke’s theology that led Leo Strauss to
conclude that it was part of a rhetorical screen for an essentially Hobbesian outlook
(Strauss 1953, 202-3, 226-7). Dunn believes that Locke is ultimately a Calvinist in his
religious and moral thought (Dunn 1969, 259; cf Ashcraft 1969, 214), while Strauss
believed that Locke’s philosophical and political system abandoned all theological
supports. Both views draw strength from the notorious fact that Locke failed to produce a
natural theology of the type that his moral and political philosophy claims to require.
The issue is not simply of antiquarian, or even of merely theological, interest.
Locke’s claim, repeated in works from the beginning of his philosophical career to the
end, in public and in private writings, is that morality cannot exist without divine
legislation and enforcement.
1
Natural law cannot be binding—it cannot be a “law”—
unless these conditions are met, and Locke’s political philosophy, as outlined in the Se-
cond Treatise of Government, appears to stand or fall with the existence of a certain type
of natural law. If this is so, at least Locke’s version of liberalism will be found to depend
on theology. In a broader sense, we may say, all liberalism depends upon theology.
Events of recent years have revealed how potent a threat to free society can be posed by a
hostile religious zeal. They have reminded us of what Locke knew, that free government
is dependent on theology at least to the extent that it must forestall illiberal positions that
claim to derive from divine will, such as Robert Filmer’s claim that human beings are
born, by divine mandate, in a state of subjection. Thus, as the Two Treatises of Govern-
ment show, Locke was compelled to develop a theology not only to ground his own
1
See the early Questions concerning the Law of Nature, pp 101-3, 159, 193, 205-7; Essay Concerning
Human Understanding I.3.12, II.28.5-6; Second Treatise of Government, §§7-8, 136; Some Thoughts Con-
cerning Education, §§136, 139; The Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 44. From Locke’s private,
unpublished writings, see Of Ethics in General, passim. See also Aarslef 1969, 110.
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