Theological Origins of Modernity

206 chapter six
power of such fears, and the Wars of Religion were the most grievous consequence
of giving in to them. Th e spirit of truth manifested in Cartesian
science clears our mind of the terrifying illusions of the imagination that
give force to these fears. Freed from these illusions, we can then understand
the path we should follow in life, a path that is humanistic in its
development but that is fi nally rooted in a mathematical representation
and appropriation of nature. At the end of this process we will no longer be
governed by the fear of God but by good sense, especially when it is used,
as he tells Princess Elizabeth in a letter of 1646, by a prince guided by a
nearly divine will guaranteeing the rights of thinking subjects. 153 Indeed,
Descartes seems to suggest that with the spread of his method, good sense
will come to predominate in human beings and as a result they will all
agree to form such a regime. 154
Th e generally liberal consequences of his science were not something
that Descartes could bruit about with impunity. Indeed, he only began to
reveal these consequences later in life, when he had more powerful friends
and protectors. Sadly, however, even his fame and friends were unable to
keep him safe from harm. Th e outbreak of the Fronde in France and the
attacks leveled against him by Voetius and others in Holland were the
principal reasons Descartes decided reluctantly to move to Sweden and
accept the protection of Queen Christiana. 155 Th e Queen demanded that
Descartes tutor her every winter morning before dawn, and with the repeated
exposure to the frigid weather in an unheated coach, his health
deteriorated rapidly and he died.
Descartes was able in the end to resolve the fear of the Lord with his
completed wisdom. Th e price he had to pay for this, however, was high. In
part, like Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, he could only achieve this goal by abandoning
traditional religious beliefs and following what began at least as a
Hermetic path. But this was not the greatest danger. Th e God that Descartes
fi rst imagined and feared was a titanic God, beyond reason and nature,
beyond good and evil. Descartes won his struggle with this fearsome
God only by taking this God’s power upon himself. 156 He thereby opened
up the hope and aspiration for human omnipotence, a hope that has manifested
itself repeatedly since in monstrous form.