Богословие Исаака Ньютона: проблема типологизации

Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета. Серия 1: Богословие. Философия. Религиоведение. 2022. № 103. С. 50–66.

Регульский И. Т.

Disputes about Newton’s religious beliefs began as early as during Sir Isaac’s life. Over the past two hundred years his beliefs have been classified as Anglican, Puritan, Arian, Socinian, Deistic, and even Judaic. Now researchers have come to a unanimous agreement about Newton’s heterodoxy, i.e. the first two versions were refuted, as well as the statement about Sir Isaac’s deism. However, later there arose new disagreements that emphasise different traditions, whose influence, as various scholars suggest, had a great influence on Newton’s theology. These disagreements, for them to be resolved, require a solution to the following two problems. First, they require a critical analysis of existing hypotheses, as well as their correlation to each other, to establish the validity of each of them. Second, it is necessary to answer the question about the unique character of Newton’s theology. Some scholars emphasise its originality and reject attempts to “squeeze” him into any particular tradition. True in itself, this thesis suffers from vagueness, since the actual uniqueness of Newton’s theology can be regarded as a specific combination of two theological traditions, i.e. Arianism with Socinianism. The author of the article, recognising the fundamental importance of both for the thought of Sir Isaac, aims to show that the uniqueness of his theology is due to the combination of Socinian premises with Arian results in triadology. The version about the influence of Judaism on Newton’s antitrinitarianism is denied: though it has some grounds, after a closer examination it turns out to be untenable. All the parallels and connections of Newton with Judaism, which the scholars mention, are either false, or have analogues in the Christian tradition.

Keywords: иудаизм, Ньютон, арианство, Маймонид, социнианство, деизм