3. The Modern Era
3.1. From Hobbes to Pietism
The vernacular translations of Calvin’s Institutio show how the
terminology ofagnoscoand recognoscowas rendered into French,
German, and English. The early modern English translation of 1574,
quoted in the footnotes of the previous chapter, normally uses‘acknow-
ledge’as the translation ofagnosco. Interestingly, it uses‘reknowledge’
as the translation ofrecognosco. The word did not become a philosoph-
ical term in English, but‘acknowledge’is frequently employed in early
modern philosophical works. As the present study focuses on religious
and theological sources, I cannot treat these works at the length they
would otherwise deserve. The focus of the present book means that
many other discussions from Hobbes to Rousseau remain beyond my
scope, including those regarding the natural sociability of humans.^1
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke are among the founding fathers of
the Enlightenment ideas of toleration and democratic political theory.
While their works are not primarily concerned with theology, they
treat religious issues at length and employ vocabularies that stem
from ecclesiastical traditions. We will look more closely at two clas-
sical works that are available in both English and Latin, namely,
Hobbes’sLeviathan(1651) and Locke’sLetter Concerning Toleration
(1689). While the earliest English versions of these works have been
generally received and should therefore be considered as the proper
source texts, the Latin texts manifest continuities with the older
tradition. We will therefore give the relevant Latin phrases of Hobbes
(^1) For Rousseau, cf. Neuhouser 2008. Ricoeur 2005, 207–14. While the observations
of Cavell 1969, 256–63 and 1979, 329–496 regarding the use of‘know’and‘acknow-
ledge’in ordinary English are valuable, I cannot discuss them here.