Mathew Tindal (1655-1733)

Major works

•          Christianity as Old as the Creation

•          The Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature (1730) (became the Bible of deism)

Importance

•          Famous English Deist

•          Criticized alliances between church and state

•          Criticized traditional views of the Bible

•          Special revelation not needed for the rational person because all rational creatures have a law of nature or reason

•          Influenced Voltaire’s religious outlook

•          Advocated high-church Anglicanism