The Age of Reason
The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology is a book written by the British and American political activist Thomas Paine. The book defends the philosophical position of deism, follows in the tradition of 18th-century British deism, and challenges the official religion and the authority of the Bible. It was published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807.
The Age of Reason was a best-seller in the United States, where it was the cause for a coming back of deism. However, it was not well received in Britain because the public there feared increased political radicalism as a result of the French Revolution.
The Age of Reason presents common deistic arguments; for example, it highlights what Paine saw as corruption of the Christian Church. He prefers reason to revelation, which leads him to reject miracles and to view the Bible as an ordinary book, rather than a text given by God. He promotes natural religion and argues for the existence of a creator god.
The Age Of Reason Media
Several early copies of The Age of Reason
George Cruikshank's The Radical's Arms (1819), pillorying the excesses of the French revolution
An oil painting of Thomas Paine by Auguste Millière (1880), after an engraving by William Sharp, after a portrait by George Romney (1792)
Title page from Paine's Rights of Man (1792)
Title page from the eighth edition of Bishop Watson's rejoinder to Paine
A George Cruikshank cartoon attacking Paine; The caption reads: "The Age of Reason; or, the World turned Topsy-turvy exemplified in Tom Paine's Works!"
Thomas Jefferson, often identified as an American deist
