Abstract

Contrary to the prevailing scholarly view, this article claims that the example of the first modern author to extensively discuss the art of exoteric-esoteric writing provides decisive evidence that writing on more than one layer was not a device all modern authors had recourse to solely in order to avoid political, social, or religious persecution. By means of an analysis of the genealogy of the thought of this author, John Toland, the article shows that an ulterior reason for practicing the art of careful writing may be found in an attempt to avoid both classical superstition and public atheism. And by way of a discussion of the key concept Toland employed in order to make such an attempt successful, the concept of ‘pantheism,’ the article concludes that the relationship between faith and reason in modern times is not as straightforward and uncomplicated as it usually appears.