Hobbes's Belief in God

Abstract

This article explores Hobbes's response to the writings of the Old Testament and to the Book of Job in particular, demonstrating his belief that the art of politics consists in the imitation of the commands of an omnipotent God. This idea of imitation is analysed in Hobbes's treatment of covenant, particularly the covenant with Abraham, which Hobbes identified as the paradigm of all covenants. The same notion of imitation is also illustrated in Hobbes's profound conviction that sovereignty constitutes the soul of the state and Hobbes's belief in an omnipotent God is shown to be consistent with his nominalism, with his undeniable materialism and with his scientific method. Just as the Book of Job revealed the irresistible power of an omnipotent God, Leviathan demonstrated the irresistible power of God's personator, the mortal sovereign. And God's own creation, Man, imitates the permanence of nature in his own artefact, ‘Leviathan’.