A History of Religions in the Theophrastus redivivus Between Eternal Return, Decline, and Progress of Man

In the atheist tract Theophrastus redivivus (1659), time is cyclical and the world eternal and non-providential. Within it, however, one also finds a history of religions that corresponds to a degradation of knowledge: rather than a factual history, it is a ‘genealogy’ of error that takes the form of a progressive removal from an original nature. This also renders the reverse movement possible, i.e. that of a progress of “natural reason,” conceived as both sensible and individual.