The Enthusiastical Concerns of Dr. Henry More: Religious Meaning and the Psychology of Delusion

Examines the role of the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More, in discrediting certain religious and philosophical movements of the 17th century by branding them as enthusiastical - that is, the result of psychological imbalance issuing in impaired judgement and cognition. More’s views are distinguished from his enthusiastical opponents - Alchemists, Quakers, and Mechanical philosophers - by looking at the way in which he dialectally employs various speech genres to describe religious meaning and to evoke in his readers attitudes and feelings confirming that meaning. More is presented as offering a consistent ideal of the religiously meaningful life, protecting it from various forms of intellectual corruption. Insights are provided into such diverse themes as the connection between Hermeticism, Cartesianism, and religious radicalism.