Scott Mandelbrote, »Newton, Religion, and the Netherlands«

Isaac Newton's own religious beliefs were kept largely private, expressed mainly in the many thousands of pages of manuscript that he wrote on the biblical exegesis and the history of the Church. Some of this work was published after Newton's death and something of Newton's very individual notion of God was also communicated during his lifetime through the General Scholium of the Principia (second edition, 1713) and through the publications and lectures of several of Newton's acquaintances, in particular Richard Bentley, Samuel Clarke, and WIlliam Whiston. This paper will examine the role played by scholars living in the Netherlands and by the Dutch publishing industry in disseminating Newton's own religious ideas, as well as considering some of the ways in which Newton's religion interacted with Dutch natural philosophy and Dutch religious culture during the eighteenth century. It will begin with a treatment of the triangular relationship between Newton, John Locke, and Jean Le Clerc, which led to the exchange of manuscripts and almost to the publication of Newton's thoughts concerning the historical corruptions of Scripture. The afterlife of the manuscript copies of Newton's thoughts which Le Clerc owned will also be considered. The reception of Newton's published works in the religious life of the Netherlands will then also be considered, in particular thinking about the dissemination of those works that specifically circulated his religious writings. Personal contacts, including the correspondence of the Dutch natural philosopher, Christiaan Huygens, and his friend Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, who was one of Newton's closest confidantes, will also be discussed, as will Newton's relationship with the Dutch alchemist, William Yworth. A range of different reactions, depending in part on confessional viewpoint, to Newton's religious ideas will be traced, as will the development of physico-theological ideas which depended in whole or in part on the Newtonian understanding of nature. Here the importance of particular Dutch interpretations of Newtonianism will again be stressed. As a whole, the paper will hope to answer the questions: what was the relationship of Newton's own religious ideas with Dutch intellectual culture during Newton's own lifetime and how did Newton's ideas impact on Dutch religious culture in the period after his death.