[Hac-announce] April 2016 Book Discussion: "Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic" by Matthew Stewart

[Kevin Gough or Paula Jones]

Our book for April is Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart. The discussion will take place Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 2 pm in the library of the Unitarian Society of New Haven at 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.

>From Amazon:
America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began.

(Discover how the founding principles of America tie to our earlier selection, The Swerve: "The revival of the Epicurean philosophy that followed upon the rediscovery of Lucretius in early modern Europe was the decisive episode in the history of modern thought [emphasis added]. It was more important than what we now call the scientific revolution, which was really its consequence rather than its cause." - pg. 80 of Nature's God)

“A lively, powerful, and erudite refutation of the myth that the framers of our secular Constitution had any intention of founding an orthodox Christian nation.” ― Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

The book is readily available in numerous libraries around the state.

Refreshments will be served.





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