47 pages 1 hour read

Thomas Paine

The Age Of Reason

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1794

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Index of Terms

Christianity

A monotheistic faith rooted in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, Christianity teaches believers to worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and in so doing, to hope for eternal salvation. Paine uses textual analysis to examine the New Testament, focusing in particular on supposed inconsistencies in the Gospels, as well as dubious claims of prophecy. He concludes that Christianity is false.

Creation

In the Deist context, Creation refers to the universe and everything in it. Paine cites Creation as the only true revelation of God’s word. Through the study of Creation, Deists unite science and religion.

Deism

A monotheistic faith, Deism teaches that one God created the universe and then left it alone to function according to natural laws discoverable by scientific inquiry. As a celebration of human reason, Deism differs from religions based on the presumed revelation of God’s word as preserved in texts. Paine wrote Age of Reason to promote Deism at a time when he believed Christianity would crumble.