Machiavelli and the Religion of the AncientsPlatonism and Radical Republicanism

Presents a new interpretation of Machiavelli’s recovery of ancient religion and its role in establishing a modern form of republicanism

• Presents a new interpretation of Machiavelli’s idea of religion and its political uses
• Explains the role of ancient theology in the Italian Renaissance and explains the tensions with Christianity
• Displays a complex picture of how Platonism and Aristotelianism, mediated by medieval Arabic, Jewish and Byzantine interpretations, were deployed in the culture wars of Italian Renaissance
• Defends a republican conception of constitutionalism that is neither oligarchic nor populist

Machiavellianism and Platonism are traditionally opposed, as realism is to idealism, and might is to right. This book questions this opposition, arguing that Machiavelli is far more influenced by Platonism than by Epicureanism. The Platonism at the time of the Medici is marked by the reception of Arabic/Islamic and Byzantine interpretations of Plato. These portray Platonism as an expression of an “ancient theology” that offers an alternative to Christianity by undoing a stark opposition between faith and knowledge; emphasising the political and state-founding role of prophets; affirming the continuity between humans and animals; and defending the rationality of divine and human law. Miguel Vatter contends that from these alternative approaches to Platonism, Machiavelli draws a critique of both the Catholic Church and of Humanism, rejecting their oligarchic tendencies in favour of a radical form of republicanism.