112HOBBES, THOMAS
human history in terms of creation, fall,
and redemption. Hegel developed a spec-
ulative account of history in terms of the
life of spirit. Teilhard De Chardin articu-
lated a theological interpretation of evo-
lution, according to which history will
culminate in a divine consciousness.
These accounts are sometimes consid-
ered “speculative” history.
In terms of historical inquiry itself,
some philosophers are critical realists,
upholding the normative practice of his-
tory as a source of knowledge. Other
philosophers challenge the idea that there
is an objective, discernible true or meta-
narrative in human history. This “critical”
approach to history looks at history as a
series of subjective human accounts of
past events. This approach has some
similarities with the latter form of specu-
lative history in that it questions the
motivations and virtue of humans as
historical actors. This critical approach
can be traced back to skeptical Enlighten-
ment accounts of religious experience,
for instance, Hume’s attack on miracles.
Recently this critical history has been
central to the postmodern critique of
meta-narratives which marks out the
writings of writers like Foucault.
HOBBES, THOMAS (1558–1679). A
British political philosopher who offered
a contractarian foundation for society.
According to Hobbes, social bonds are
justified for without governance we
would be in a state of nature and at risk
of premature violent death. Hobbes
advanced a materialist view of the world
and God. He combined a stringent form of
hedonism with a case for the establish-
ment of a powerful governing sovereign.
His works include The Elements of Law
(1640), On the Citizen (1651), Leviathan
(1651), On Body (1655), and On Man
(1658).HOLBACH, PAUL HENRI D’ (BARON)
(1723–1789). An anti-Christian pole-
micist and materialist-determinist. He
argued that human beings are machines.
His works include Christianity Unveiled
(1767), The System of Nature (1770),
Common Sense, or Natural Ideas Opposed
to Supernatural Ideas (1772), Social Sys-
tem (1773), Natural Politics (1774), and
Universal Morality (1776).HOLINESS. Holiness is a central notion
within Christian theology and spiritual-
ity. Christian conceptions of human
holiness are typically organized around
the idea of an individual life embodying
a special relationship with Jesus Christ
through which a person is transformed
into the likeness of Christ. Illustrative
examples of such lives can be found both
in the New Testament and in the stories
of the lives of the saints. There are many
different views of human holiness, some
emphasizing that human holiness is a
property achieved as a result of the whole
of an exemplary Christian life, others giv-
ing more prominence to the idea that to