Revolution within: Thomas Paine's dramatic shift toward radicalism.

摘要

In some past studies, both Thomas Paine's growing radicalism and his earlier Christian worldview have been overlooked. Through deep evaluation of his major works---primarily Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, and Agrarian Justice---a more accurate picture of Thomas Paine has been presented. The Thomas Paine of Rights of Man and Agrarian Justice was a far more radical man than the Paine of Common Sense. And contrary to popular belief, Paine's writings and rhetoric prior to Age of Reason were very pro-Christian and non-deistic. Some have retroactively applied Paine's extreme deism from Age of Reason to all of his previous works, resulting in an inaccurate picture of Paine as one who always deplored Christianity and religion in general. But by the end of his life, Paine was certainly more secularly and "collectively" minded---indeed, he was more radical.