The General Will before Rousseau: The Transformation of the Divine into the Civic

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Patrick Riley traces the forgotten roots of Rousseau's concept to seventeenth-century questions about the justice of God. If He wills that all men be saved, does He have a general will that produces universal salvation And, if He does not, why does He will particularly" that some men be damned The theological origin of the "general will" was impo

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"A most important contribution to the study of Enlightenment political and social ideas, accessible to public library patrons as well as academic readers. The author presents a very convincing claim that the doctrine of the general will emerged as a theological idea, predating by over a century Rousseau's famous political application in the Social Contract. There is a very impressive marshaling of literary evidence, moderated by a clear facility with the argumentative and writing styles of the major participants."--Choice