Nathaniel Culverwell
English author and theologian (1619–1651)
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Nathaniel Culverwell (alternative spellings Nathanael or Culverwel; 1619–1651) was an English author and theologian, born in Middlesex.
He was the second of six children of Richard and Margaret (Horton) Culverwell.[1] He was baptized on 14 January 1619 at the church of St. Margaret Moses where his father was rector.
He was a student (admitted 1633) and later a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[2] He was associated with members of the Cambridge Platonists group.[3]
Culverwell was one of the first people in England to read Descartes, and the first of the Cambridge Platonists to publish his own ideas; he believed in free will, the intrinsic goodness of all things, and that both the soul and the ability to reason come from God.[3]
Works
- Spiritual Optics, or a Glass Discovering the Weakness and Imperfection of a Christian's Knowledge in this Life, 1651
- An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature, 1652 [4] – His best-known work, this was originally delivered as a series of lectures in 1645–1646, and attempted mediation between reason and faith, via natural law, in the context of the opposing religious stances of the English Civil War.
- Worth of Souls
- The Schisme
- Act of Oblivion
- Child's Return
- Panting Soul
- Mount Ebal
- White Stone
