Above the Age of Reason: Miracles and Wonders in the Long Eighteenth Century ed. by Kevin L. Cope

Abstract

231 tionary debates in pamphlets and newspapers of the 1760s and 1770s, for instance —it does not. The book is handsomely produced and exceedingly well documented. Along with the splendid Appendix, there is a 45-page Bibliography of primary and secondary sources, an extensive Index, and more than 60 illustrations . The Enlightenment and the Book will be delightfully useful reading for scholars of the Scottish Enlightenment and eighteenth-century book history, but it should not be confined to them because of its pleasure and delight. Mark G. Spencer Brock University Above the Age of Reason: Miracles and Wonders in the Long Eighteenth Century , ed. Kevin L. Cope. New York: AMS, 2006. Pp. 375. $164.50. In the Preface, Mr. Cope frames Above the Age of Reason as a corrective response to the ‘‘unwavering aversion to early modern supernaturalism’’ that has characterized scholarship of the long eighteenth century in the two succeeding ones. Debates over miracles and supernaturalism , for example, were shaped by and in turn influenced the empiricism closely associated with Augustan thought: ‘‘Sensational wonders,’’ Mr. Cope argues, ‘‘fulfilled rather than obstructed the empiricist quest for sense, sense, and more sense.’’ With their ‘‘complex, multivalent tone’’ and approaches to polemic, these texts also enrich our awareness of eighteenthcentury prose style. To be ignorant of these writings, he argues, is to have an incomplete acquaintance with eighteenth -century Britain. Each facsimile reprint is introduced and annotated by one of four editors. Matthew Smith’s Philosophical Discourse of the Nature of Rational and Irrational Souls (1695), edited by James G. Buickerood, sets out to prove that humans are distinct from animals in possessing reason, will, and rational souls. The School of the Eucharist with a Preface Concerning the Testimony of Miracles (1687), edited by David Venturo , includes a preface by William Clagett attacking the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation alongside a translation of beast tales by the Jesuit Toussaint Bridoul, published in French in 1672, in defense of transubstantiation . Excerpts from Thomas Sherlock’s The Use and Intent of Prophecy (1725), edited by Keith Bodner, defend the evidentiary soundness of biblical prophecy from Anthony Collins’s Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724). Thomas Woolston, A Discourse on the Miracles of Our Saviour (1727), edited by Mr. Cope, argues that miracles related in the gospels should be understood as allegorically but not literally true. A bizarre combination of patristic erudition, ridicule, and combative rhetoric has made him the most notorious participant in the eighteenth-century debate over miracles. In the age of EEBO, ECCO, the Gutenberg Project, the publication of four relatively obscure theological tracts in a hardback volume may seem unnecessary . A closer look, however, reveals the great worth of this publication for our understanding of religious controversy in the so-called Age of Reason. These four texts collected within one book provide a cross section of the meeting of divine forces and the material world. Concise, elegant, and exceptionally well researched, the excellent editorial apparatus equips a reader new to the topic with enough information to follow what 232 can be a dense tangle of assertion and rebuttal. Especially appealing is the simultaneous attentiveness to literary and philosophical topics, for example, Mr. Cope’s insight about ‘‘Woolston’s commitment to eighteenth-century literarycritical and aesthetic ideals’’ and Mr. Venturo’s framework of the beast fable for understanding Bridoul’s School. A gentle chide: Mr. Cope opposes an ‘‘acute concern for identity issues found in gender studies’’ to the study of Augustan religion in the Preface. Certainly it is the case that much study of gender has overlooked the importance of religion , but we also cannot ignore the work that has been done—and needs to continue—on gender and or within religious writings. It is arguable, for example , that an interest in women writers such as Mary Astell has increased our collective knowledge of eighteenth-century religion. A full understanding of the rhetorical tactics deployed in these debates would involve some study of the subtle role of gender. Notwithstanding this minor point, this collection is excellent . Laura M. Stevens University of Tulsa COSTICA BRADATAN. The Other Bishop Berkeley: An Exercise in Reenchantment . New York: Fordham, 2006...