{"id":9976,"date":"2005-09-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/thenewatlantis.com\/publications\/francis-bacons-god"},"modified":"2020-10-12T16:48:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T20:48:22","slug":"francis-bacons-god","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/publications\/francis-bacons-god","title":{"rendered":"Francis Bacon’s God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 1968 Howard B. White published Peace among the Willows<\/a><\/em>, the first book-length analysis of Bacon\u2019s \u201cNew Atlantis.\u201d White, a political theorist who regards Bacon as a principal shaper of modern political ideas, maintains that it is this utopian work and not one of Bacon\u2019s philosophical treatises that provides the fullest statement of Bacon\u2019s political theory. White is especially interested in what he regards as Bacon\u2019s secularization of politics and glorification of the power of science to serve the interests of the secular state. In developing his argument, White maintains that \u201cNew Atlantis\u201d must be read with meticulous care in order to understand Bacon\u2019s complex interweaving and transformation of political iconography, ancient history and fables, religious symbols, scientific methodologies, and pseudo-scientific concepts. White devotes considerable attention to Bacon\u2019s use of religious themes and argues that he manipulates them in order to subvert Christian ideas and transform them into a culturally acceptable justification for a preoccupation with luxury and materialism. According to White, Bacon\u2019s purpose is to transform the human quest from the search for the \u201cheavenly city\u201d to the creation of the well-governed country, and to change the philosophical quest from an effort to understand God, God\u2019s Creation, and humanity\u2019s place in it to a pursuit to understand what humans can make of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White\u2019s work has been highly influential and augmented more recently by another political philosopher, Jerry Weinberger. Weinberger also argues that Bacon\u2019s utopia provides a primary source for understanding the transitional phase from early modern political ideas to those of the modern age, and he maintains that Bacon manipulates religious language and concepts to conceal his secular agenda. Recently, considerable attention to Bacon\u2019s \u201cNew Atlantis\u201d has also come from the new historical criticism. Studies by Charles Whitney, Amy Boesky, and others have analyzed utopian literature as a primary source for understanding the \u201cfounding fictions\u201d and political ideologies underpinning nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, and overseas expansion. Like White and Weinberger, many cultural historians treat Bacon\u2019s manipulation of religious ideas as a way of providing cultural authority for his political agenda. Marina Leslie, for example, asserts that Bacon inverts the spiritual and material worlds, and claims that Bacon transforms spiritual salvation into material well-being accomplished by humans and not by God. David Innes, a theologian influenced by White, contends that Bacon is responsible for transmuting Christian hope for spiritual salvation into a secular dream of material comfort and argues that the Christianity of Bensalem is actually a \u201cfundamental assault upon, transformation of and ultimate displacement of Christianity.\u201d Denise Albanese asserts that Bensalemite Christianity \u201cfirst serves as yet another instance of reverse colonialism, with the natives\u2019 conversion already an accomplished fact\u201d and as the \u201ccode for an intellectual imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This essay contends that it is a misunderstanding and distortion to view Bacon\u2019s use of religious language and concepts as disingenuous and manipulative. It demonstrates that Bacon\u2019s program of utopian reform, as presented in \u201cNew Atlantis,\u201d is grounded in genuinely and deeply felt religious convictions, which serve as the foundation for his program of political and social prosperity through the advancement of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing the evidence to support a position that stands in marked contrast to prevailing interpretations requires careful attention to the details of Bacon\u2019s utopian narrative. We need to examine each episode of the story, from the storm that brings European sailors to Bensalem, through the Europeans\u2019 interviews with the Governor of the Strangers\u2019 House and with Joabin, to the climactic audience with a Father of Solomon\u2019s House. We need to pay careful attention to the accounts of Bensalem\u2019s conversion to Christianity and to the early history of Bensalem, Atlantis, and other great sea-going civilizations. While only one of these, the conversion to Christianity, is explicitly religious, examination of the other episodes demonstrates Bacon\u2019s pervasive use of two key religious themes: providential deliverance<\/em> and special election<\/em>. In discussing the primordial history of Bensalem and Atlantis, we need to compare Bacon\u2019s version of the myth of Atlantis to the one found in Plato\u2019s Critias <\/em>and Timaeus<\/em>. Bacon uses this primordial history to portray a golden age that has been virtually lost from memory; as a result, humanity has been left with a truncated account of its past achievements. Bacon refers to an ancient wisdom that has been lost and replaced by impotent, inferior philosophies. Yet the purpose of the Platonic myth in \u201cNew Atlantis\u201d is to instill hope that this knowledge can be recovered and the state of civilizational excellence restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then need to turn to the complex themes surrounding the activities of Solomon\u2019s House. This episode typically receives the most extended discussion, but the focus is usually on Bacon\u2019s description of collaborative efforts of specialized sciences to advance empirical knowledge and bring relief to the human condition. The analysis offered here will place Bacon\u2019s references to Solomon and Solomon\u2019s House in the context of the iconography of the court of the British King James I, particularly portrayals of James I as the new Solomon, who would restore Solomon\u2019s Temple and usher in a providential age of peace, harmony, and prosperity. Bacon conceives of Solomon\u2019s House (i.e., the recovery of natural philosophy) as the complement to the rebuilding of Solomon\u2019s Temple (i.e., the restoration of true religion). This is the heart of Bacon\u2019s program of instauration: first, a thoroughgoing reform of religion that restores humanity\u2019s relation to God, and second, a thoroughgoing recovery of the principles of natural philosophy that restores humanity\u2019s dominion over nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Bacon\u2019s \u201cgreat instauration\u201d is not a secular, scientific advance through which humanity gains dominion over nature and mastery of its own destiny. Bacon\u2019s instauration is a program for rehabilitating humanity and its relation to nature, guided by divine Providence and achieved through pious human effort. To make this contrarian case, let us follow Bacon\u2019s story as it unfolds.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\r\n\t\tThe Discovery of Bensalem\t<\/h5>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

T<\/span>he story begins with a European expedition sailing from Peru en route to China and Japan being blown off course and becoming lost \u201cin the greatest wilderness of the waters in the world.\u201d Helpless and disoriented, the sailors pray to God, begging for mercy and deliverance. Night closes in leaving them to wonder at their fate. When dawn comes, they discover that their prayers have been answered and they have been brought within sight of land. As they approach the uncharted island, people on shore warn the Europeans not to disembark. The Europeans beg for assistance explaining that they have several sick sailors on board, who might die without medical attention. In response to this urgent need, an official of the country sails out to their ship and offers provisions, medication, and repairs that will enable the Europeans to get underway. This offer is presented on a scroll written in four languages (Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Spanish), and marked by a cross and a pair of cherubim\u2019s wings. (The cross is an obvious Christian symbol, and cherubim\u2019s wings are a key symbol from the Old Testament, representing God\u2019s presence among His chosen people.) The apprehension of the Europeans is relieved by the obvious charity and learning of the inhabitants of this country, but most of all by the familiar sign of the cross. Similarly, the Bensalemites relax their guarded reception of the foreigners when they declare themselves to be from a Christian land, and the Europeans are invited to the island to recuperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This opening segment is noteworthy for its introduction of the leitmotif of divine intervention and salvation. In describing the event, the Europeans compare their experience to that of Jonah and acknowledge that it was divine grace that brought them to Bensalem. Were these the only references to deliverance or salvation, their significance could be discounted or attributed to the language conventions of Bacon\u2019s day. This is not the case, however. The theme of salvation and deliverance is developed further as the Europeans experience the charity of the Bensalemites. The sailors are so struck by the people and by the society that they declare that it \u201cseemed to us that we have before us a picture of our salvation in heaven; for we that were awhile since in the jaws of death.\u201d On another occasion, they say that they had \u201ccome into a land of angels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\r\n\t\tThe Conversion of Bensalem\t<\/h5>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

When given an opportunity to learn about this remarkable island, the first question that the Europeans hope to have answered is how the island had been converted to Christianity. The Governor of the Strangers\u2019 House explains that the conversion occurred as the result of a miraculous event which happened about twenty years after the Resurrection and Ascension. One night a great column of light topped by a cross appeared about a mile out on the ocean. A few brave souls from Renfusa, the nearest city, boarded boats and sailed out toward the hierophany. When they had come within about 60 yards, they were mysteriously restrained from drawing closer. One of the boats, however, had a member of Solomon\u2019s House on board, who offered this prayer: \u201cLord God of Heaven and Earth, Thou hast vouchsafed of Thy grace to those of our order, to know Thy works of Creation, and the secrets of them; and to discern … between divine miracles, works of Nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts.\u201d He then declared the column to be a genuine miracle and begged God to reveal its true meaning. The wise man was allowed to move closer, and, as he did, the Pillar of Cloud was transformed, leaving an ark (small chest) floating in the water. As the wise man moved toward it, the chest opened to reveal a book and a letter. The book found in the ark contained canonical books familiar to the Europeans and \u201csome other books of the New Testament which were not at that time written.\u201d The letter was from the apostle Bartholomew, who stated that he had received a vision in which God instructed him \u201cto commit the ark to the floods of the sea.\u201d When the ark reached its appointed destination, the people of that land would receive \u201csalvation and peace and goodwill from the Father and from the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several aspects of this account deserve comment and development:<\/p>\n\n\n\n