James Mill, the Scottish Enlightenment and the Problem of Civil Religion
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revealed. The Reformation was “the natural effect of many powerful causes, prepared by peculiar providence, and happily conspiring to that end.” 47
As previously explained, the enlightened Scottish historians celebrated Protestantism’s role in bringing about societal progress, but this was emphatically not a celebration of Protestantism as identified with an English, Scottish or British national identity. They offered, instead, a universalist assessment of the benefits associated with a religion that encouraged free enquiry. 48 But in the case of Robertson, his account of Revelation also implied European exceptionalism and therefore a unique role for European nations in spreading the universal benefits of Christianity: the natural mechanisms of progress would improve both religion and society to a certain degree, but only Christian nations could communicate the Word to non-European peoples. 49
consciously secular approach to studying religion not as a vector or truth, but as a social and political phenomenon. This was not unique to the Scottish Enlightenment; in particular it is clear that Montesquieu provided the impetus for such a study. The distinctiveness of the Scottish approach came from its focus on religious change and its impact on societal progress (by comparison with Montesquieu’s static assessment of Protestantism as suited to republics and to the spirit of freedom of Northern nations), as well as in its specific interest in the social and political role of the Reformation (as distinct from Christianity) in the progress of civilization. The Scots’ naturalistic, evolutionary view of religion as both a product and tool of the progress of society did suggest, however, that Protestantism in its current form was unlikely to be the end of religious history. What would, therefore, modern religion look like in the future? Montesquieu’s answer had been consistent with his general message: his hope was not for a society free from religion, nor even for the rise of a purely rational kind of Christianity. Rather, a modern and civilized religion would be freed from the prejudices and violent tendencies to intolerance that had until now characterized all
47 Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V, 2:117, 120. For an account of Robertson’s providentialist narrative of religion see Phillipson, “Providence and Progress,” 61–73. For a more secular interpretation of Robertson’s historical thought see Spadafora, The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 374–77. 48 This contrasts with Linda Colley’s analysis of Protestantism as a source of British national identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. On the question see Colin Kidd, “North Britishness and the Nature of Eighteenth-Century British Patriotisms,” The Historical Journal 39:2 (1996), 361–82. 49 Robertson’s account of progress relied on the role of superior civilizations to civilize the world. His sermon The Situation of the World at the Time of Christ’s Appearance and his History of America presented the Roman and Spanish Empires as the instruments of Providence in civilizing Europe and South American, and his planned history of British America cast Britain as another divine agent of progress. See Sebastiani,
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revealed religions, and would serve to soften the moeurs of its practitioners. As argued above, Hume and Smith’s best-case scenarios for the future development of religion were not remarkably different: their negative understanding of “true religion” as religion freed from superstition and prejudice certainly echoed one aspect of Montesquieu’s views. Yet it was Robertson who most clearly pushed forward Montesquieu’s vision of a tolerant, peaceful and softening religion, albeit from a distinctly providentialist perspective that was not Montesquieu’s: his account of a Revelation slowly unfolding with the progress of society suggested that the state of religion in post-reformation Europe remained far from perfect, and that the ongoing progress of civilization may yet be preparing the world for further revelation. 50 In the meantime, Europe would be the instrument of Providence in expanding Christianity (and therefore civilization) throughout the world.
James Mill was very much a product of his Scottish education, if only in the sense that the question of his religious faith, or lack thereof, is largely irrelevant to his views on history, society and politics. The son of a shoemaker and of an ambitious mother, Mill was a promising student who was sent by benefactors to the University of Edinburgh, where he trained to become a minister. He enrolled in 1790, in the last years of William Robertson’s Principalship, and attended the University until 1798. Evidence from this time in his life is scant, but we do know that he attended Dugald Stewart’s classes and read key Scottish Enlightenment texts, including by Reid, Hume, Smith, Kames and Ferguson. 51 Later he recollected his attendance of Stewart’s lectures as a “high treat”, and his early articles amply testify to his close familiarity with the writings of the Scottish historians. 52
to have been triggered by his failure to secure a position as a minister. 53 His original choice of career tells us little, however, about his personal beliefs – it could reasonably be viewed as Mill seizing the opportunity to devote his life to intellectual pursuits. Clearly he
50 Phillipson, “Providence and Progress,” 71. 51 Bain, James Mill, 51. 52 Haakonssen, “James Mill and Scottish Moral Philosophy,” 629–30; Arthur Laurence Lazenby, “James Mill: The Formation of a Scottish Émigré Writer.” (Unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Sussex, 1972), 9.
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