Matthew Tindal

Matthew Tindal (* 1657 in Beer Ferrers, Devonshire; † August 16, 1733 in Oxford) was a representative of deism in England in the Age of Enlightenment.

Life and work

Matthew Tindal studied from about 1673 at Lincoln College, Oxford University Law, where he received his doctorate in 1685. In the same year he converted to the Catholic faith and gained thereby the favor of King James II under William III. However, he returned in 1688 to the Anglican Church and began with the spread of deistic thought.

He called the Bible a certificate of natural religion, claiming that Christianity in the sense of " natural religion " as old as the creation is, the church, however, only an institution of the State. 1710 decided the British House of Commons, to be burned one of his works. His main work was published 1730 "Christianity as old as the creation, or the Gospel a republication of the religion of nature" became Europe wide distribution and attention. The appearance of a second part ( published 1750 is fake ) but was prevented by the Bishop of London.

Tindal died 1733 in Oxford as a Senior of All Souls College.

Works

• The Rights of Christian Church, asserted against the Romish and all other Priests, who claimsoft to independent power over it ( 1706)
• An Address to the Inhabitants of the Two Great Cities of London and Westminster. In relation to a Pastoral Letter Said to be written by the Bishop of London to the People of his Diocess. Occasion 'by some late writings in favor of Infidelity ( 1729 )
• Christianity as old as the creation, or the Gospel a republication of the religion of nature (London 1730; German Lorenz Schmidt, Frankfurt am Main 1741) Reprint 1967: Edited and introduced by Günter Gawlick, Frommann ( Holzboog ), Stuttgart -Bad Cannstatt