Part 3 Chapter 32 & 33 Summary and Analysis

Part three of the book discusses the Christian Commonwealth, and this chapter introduces the principles of Christian politics. Hobbes writes that God speaks to man in two ways. The first is either immediately, or through mediation of a prophet, who is himself spoken to immediately by God. To be a prophet, the person must speak of the same God all Christians believe in. In addition, the prophet must observe that God will not have miracles serve for arguments, rather he will only use a miracle to draw legitimate attention to the prophet. Secondly, the miracle will never be anything which goes against the sovereign, because it is not God's will to make people revolt against the leader of the nation. Finally, a miracle has to occur in a reasonable amount of time in order for people to believe in...