Isaac Newton’s Pantheist Theses

Abstract

In this paper, a discussion of some theological theses of Newton’s contained in his posthumously published “De gravitatione et æquipondio fluidorum” (ca. 1668), I hold that his author maintains a pantheistic position which will still be sustained in his Opticks (1704) and in the “General Scholium” to the “System of the World” of the 1713/1726 editions of his magnificent Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica Besides arguing for the aforementioned thesis of Newton’s, I also consider two interesting proposals on Creation, that of John Scot Eriugena (ca. 810– 877) and that by the 16th century Kabalist, Isaac Luria (1534–1572), both of whomh came to be seen as pantheists (Scot Eriugena’s views were condemned by the Paris Council of 1210, 333 years after his death) even if they did not meant their proposals to be so. Finally, I consider a way to make sense of Newton’s theological proposals within a treatise of natural philosophy.