Hobbes, Augustine, and the Christian nature of man in Leviathan

Abstract

Scholars of Thomas Hobbes can be loosely divided into two camps: those who believe Hobbes retained strong medieval elements in his philosophy and those who argued that Hobbes’s philosophy marks a clear break from both Ancient philosophy and Christianity. However, regardless of their position, Hobbesian scholars always acknowledge the presence of Christian elements in Hobbes’s work. This work adds to these debates on Hobbes, but focuses solely on Hobbes’s conceptualization of 'man' rather than his broader political philosophy. Methodologically, it analyzes the presence of Christian elements by juxtaposing Hobbes’s conceptualization of 'man' to St. Augustine, a man who undergoes conversion in Confessions. This juxtaposition reveals that St. Augustine's path to conversion bears strong similarities to the 'hypothetical' man that agrees to covenant in the Leviathan. This further demonstrates that, although Hobbes challenges the old Christian and medieval order with his Leviathan, his understanding of man remains rooted in Medieval thought