Hutchinsonianism and the Newtonian Enlightenment.

Historians of science have labeled followers of the 18th cosmologist John Hutchinson (1674– 1737) as anti-Newtonian. While Hutchinson was clearly anti-Newtonian, this was not the case with later followers like George Horne and William Jones. Horne and Jones sought a rapprochement between Newton and Hutchinson; in their hands, interpretations of Newton's works were refashioned to support Hutchinson's biblically based cosmos and Trinitarian natural philosophy. Newton's thought could be used by conservative Anglican Churchmen to battle religious heterodoxy. This raises problems for traditional Enlightenment historiography which views Newtonianism as a set of ideas which supported and reinforced emerging modern forms of political and religious thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]