Philosopher · Early modern
John Locke
1632–1704 · Empiricism and liberalism
A conforming Anglican with Socinian leanings; his “reasonable” Christianity reduced the creed to Jesus as Messiah.
Locke argued that all ideas come from sensation and reflection, that we know only nominal essences, and that government rests on the consent of free and equal individuals who hold natural rights to life, liberty and property. His Letter Concerning Toleration made religious liberty a political principle (excluding Catholics and atheists).
Why he matters: The liberal constitutional order, the American founding, and the language of rights all pass through Locke; John Courtney Murray's engagement with the American settlement, and the Church's own adoption of the vocabulary of human rights (Pacem in Terris), cannot be understood without him.
Where to be careful
His nominalism dissolves natures, his empiricism undercuts the natural knowledge of God the Church affirms, his account of authority by contract is rejected in Diuturnum Illud (1881) and Immortale Dei (1885), his Reasonableness of Christianity denies original sin and the Trinity by silence, and his Essay was placed on the Index (1734).
Reading
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Second Treatise of GovernmentJohn Locke · Natural rights, consent and property.
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An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingJohn Locke · Books II–III for ideas and nominal essences; IV.10 for his proof of God.
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We Hold These TruthsJohn Courtney Murray, SJ · A Catholic reading of the Lockean settlement and its limits.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.