'Solomon's porch to the temple:' George Berkeley (1685--1753) and Anglican natural theology

George Berkeley's early writings, chiefly the Principles and Dialogues, should be read as examples of Anglican natural theology which functions, not simply as an epistemological foundation for revealed theology, but also as a discipline to subdue the appetites and inculcate virtue. The formalist approaches of contemporary philosophy and theology have reduced Berkeley's writings to a set of denatured arguments. An examination of how Berkeley's writings actually work in their latitudinarian form of life reveals that the arguments for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul function as part of a spiritual exercise. Reading Berkeley's arguments in light of the practices and concepts of Anglican theology shows that the arguments fimction, not primarily as an epistemological project, but as part of a textual strategy to transform lives by disciplining the passions. Berkeley was less concerned with doubt and it resolution than in vice and its reformation.