Balthasar Bekker was a Dutch minister and author of philosophical and theological works. Opposing superstition

Superstition

Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

, he was a key figure in the end of the witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 persecutions in early modern Europe

Early modern Europe

Early modern Europe is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Europe which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century...

.

Life

Bekker was born in Metslawier

Metslawier

Metslawier is a small village in Dongeradeel in the province Friesland of the Netherlands and has around the 920 citizens .About half a mile to the north there is the Ropta-windmill, which is in good operational shape....

 (Dongeradeel

Dongeradeel

- History :Dongeradeel was created in 1984 from a merger of the old municipalities Westdongeradeel, Oostdongeradeel, and Dokkum. The new municipality is still colloquially referred to in the plural, "de Dongeradelen".- Population centres :...

) as the son of a German pastor from Bielefeld

Bielefeld

Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

. He was educated at Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

, under Jacob Alting

Jacob Alting

Jacob Alting was a Dutch philologist and theologian. He was professor at the University of Groningen: in 1643 in oriental languages and in 1667 in theology. His publications were overseen in 1687 by Balthasar Bekker....

, and at Franeker

Franeker

Franeker is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Franekeradeel. It is located about 20 km west of Leeuwarden on the Van Harinxma Canal. As of 1 January 2006, it had 12,996 inhabitants. The city is famous for the Eisinga Planetarium from around...

. Becoming the rector of the local Latin school

Latin School

Latin School may refer to:* Latin schools of Medieval Europe* These schools in the United States:** Boston Latin School, Boston, MA** Brooklyn Latin School, New York, NY** Brother Joseph C. Fox Latin School, Long Island, NY...

, he was appointed to his satisfaction in 1657 as a pastor in Oosterlittens (Littenseradiel

Littenseradiel

Littenseradiel is a municipality in the northern Netherlands. In Dutch it's known as Littenseradeel.- Population centers :Baaium, Baard, Bears, Boazum, Britswert, Easterein, Easterlittens, Easterwierrum, Hidaard, Hilaard, Hinnaard, Húns, Iens, Itens, Jellum, Jorwert, Kûbaard, Leons, Lytsewierrum,...

), and started as one of the first to preach on Sunday afternoon.

From 1679 he worked in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, after being driven from Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

. In 1683 he traveled to England and France. In two months time Bekker visited London, Cambridge, Oxford, Paris and Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, with a great interest in the art of fortification

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

.

Controversy over Die Betooverde Wereld

The publication of Die Betooverde Wereld in 1691 led to Bekker's deposition from the ministry. The orthodox among Dutch theologians saw his views as placing him among notorious atheists: Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

, Adriaan Koerbagh

Adriaan Koerbagh

Adriaan Koerbagh was a Dutch scholar and writer best known as a critic of religion and conventional morality.-Life:...

, Lodewijk Meyer

Lodewijk Meyer

Lodewijk Meyer was a Dutch physician, classical scholar, translator, lexicographer, and playwright. He was an Enlightenment radical who was one of the more prominent members of the circle around the philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza.He published an anonymous work, the Philosophia S. Scripturae...

 and Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...

. Eric Walten

Eric Walten

Eric Walten was a Dutch Enlightenment thinker and pamphleteer, notably accused of blasphemy and of secretly following the philosophical thinking of Benedict Spinoza in the 1690s....

 came to his defence, attacking his opponents in extreme terms.

Bekker was tried for blasphemy, maligning the public Church, and spreading atheistic ideas about Scripture. Some towns banned the book, but Amsterdam and the States of Holland never did, continuing his salary, without formally stripping him of his post. He died in Amsterdam.

Works

An enthusiastic disciple of Descartes

René Descartes

René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...

, he wrote several works in philosophy and theology, which by their freedom of thought aroused considerable hostility. In his book De Philosophia Cartesiana Bekker argued that theology and philosophy each had their separate terrain and that Nature can no more be explained through Scripture than can theological truth be deduced from Nature.
His best known work was Die Betooverde Wereld (1691), or The World Bewitched (1695), in which he examined critically the phenomena generally ascribed to spiritual agency. He attacked the belief in sorcery and "possession" by the devil

Demonic possession

Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...

. Indeed he questioned the devil's very existence. He applied the doctrine of accommodation

Accommodation (religion)

Accommodation is the theological principle that God, while being in his nature unknowable and unreachable, has nevertheless communicated with mankind in a way in which humans can understand and respond....

 to account for the biblical passages traditionally cited on the issue.

The book had a sensational effect and was one of the key works of the Early Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

in Europe. It was almost certainly the most controversial. Bekker became a heroic figure defying an army of obscurantists. The World Bewitched is now considered interesting as an early study in comparative religion.

Publications:

• De philosophia Cartesiana admonitio candida & sincera. Bekker, Balth. / Vesaliae / 1668
• The world bewitch'd; or, An examination of the common opinions concerning spirits: their nature, power, administration, and operations. As also, the effects men are able to produce by their communication. Divided into IV parts; Bekker, Balthasar / Translated from a French copy, approved of and subscribed by the author's own hand / printed for R. Baldwin in Warwick-lane / 1695

External links

• Ten portraits of Balthasar Bekker
• Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) [1764] chapter on Bekker
• Works of Balthasar Bekker in Post-Reformation Digital Library

Attribution