Episode 5: Anti-Atheism in Early Modern England 1580-1720 by Kenneth Sheppard

On this episode, we delve into the arguments presented by early modern divines pushing back on the perceived threat of atheism. Largely thanks to growing anxieties over the revival of Epicurean philosophy, attached to contemporary authors, such as, Thomas Hobbes, these Christian apologists used the rhetorical argument genre know as confutation. Sheppard brilliantly analyzes these arguments and argues that an important shift takes place with the anti-atheism movement at the dawn of the Enlightenment.