Machiavelli's God

by Viroli, Maurizio; Shugaar, Antony

• ISBN13: 9781400835034
• ISBN10: 1400835038
• Copyright: 2010-08-04
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

To many readers ofThe Prince, Machiavelli appears to be deeply un-Christian or even anti-Christian, a cynic who thinks rulers should use religion only to keep their subjects in check. But inMachiavelli's God, Maurizio Viroli, one of the world's leading authorities on Machiavelli, argues that Machiavelli, far from opposing Christianity, thought it was crucial to republican social and political renewal--but that first it needed to be renewed itself. And without understanding this, Viroli contends, it is impossible to comprehend Machiavelli's thought.Viroli places Machiavelli in the context of Florence's republican Christianity, which was founded on the idea that the true Christian is a citizen who serves the common good. In this tradition, God participates in human affairs, supports and rewards those who govern justly, and desires men to make the earthly city similar to the divine one. Building on this tradition, Machiavelli advocated a religion of virtue, and he believed that, without this faith, free republics could not be established, defend themselves against corruption, or survive. Viroli makes a powerful case that Machiavelli, far from being a pagan or atheist, was a prophet of a true religion of liberty, a way of moral and political living that would rediscover and pursue charity and justice.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Republican Religion	p. 2
Machiavelli the Puritan	p. 11
Machiavelli's Prophecy	p. 20
His God	p. 27
The Soul and the Fatherland	p. 27
Republican Christianity	p. 43
Machiavelli and the Religion of Virtue	p. 61
Moral and Religious Reform	p. 75
The Power of Words	p. 89
Rhetoric and Civil Religion	p. 89
Machiavelli, Orator	p. 99
Creator of Myths	p. 109
His Finest Piece of Oratory	p. 122
Republican Eloquence and Wisdom	p. 134
The Republic and Its Religion	p. 154
Republican Government and Religion	p. 154
The Religion of Liberty	p. 170
Customs and Religion	p. 177
Religion, War, and Social Confl ict	p. 185
The Reform of Orders and the Reform of Customs	p. 198
Machiavelli and The Religious and Moral Reformation of Italy	p. 208
Heresy and Aspirations for Religious Reform	p. 211
The Difficulties of Survival in Counter-Reformation Italy	p. 232
The Redemption of Italy and the Idea of Moral Reform in the Writers of the Eighteenth Century	p. 247
The Risorgimento and the Religion of Liberty	p. 263
Index	p. 295
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