The Forgotten Thomas Paine: The Father of Unbelief (Dr. Irving Hexham)

Today Thomas Paine is remembered for his books Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) which made him the leading propagandist of the American Revolution and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. What is largely forgotten is his devastating attack on Christianity in The Age of Reason (1737-1809) and other writings and his key role in creating what many scholars call "the Victorian crisis of faith." This talk will examine Paine's criticism of Christianity and its influence on writers as diverse as Karl Marx (1818-1883), George Eliot (1819-1880), and Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) as well as Nazism in Germany.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. Also, note that not all views expressed in the lectures or in the discussion time necessarily represent the views of L'Abri Fellowship. © Canadian L'Abri 2020