Degree
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
Major(s)
Industrial Engineering
Document Type
Immediate Open Access
Abstract
In early modern England, the term “atheist” held quite a different meaning from its modern usage. Most often, it referred not to person who rejected God’s existence, but who rejected the validity of divine providence: the notion that God exerts control and order over the events of Earth. This understanding of atheism informs the reading of the 16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe, whose connection to atheistic ideas is perhaps more visible than any of his contemporaries. In this thesis, I argue that the unifying element of religion in Marlowe’s drama is anti-providentialism – a rejection of providence. I examine two of Marlowe’s plays, Tamburlaine, Part I and The Jew of Malta, as putting forth ideas of anti-providentialism underneath their more obvious, orthodox interpretations. In Tamburlaine, the absence of God’s providence is observed through Tamburlaine’s recurrent appropriation of religious rhetoric to mask his excessive cruelty towards Muslim opponents, a transgression for which he faces no divine punishment. In The Jew of Malta, the latent agreement between Catholic interests onstage and the audience’s Protestant interests challenge the idea of providence, as many English Protestants did not even consider Catholics to be Christian at all. I conclude that, on the basis of his plays, Marlowe indeed put forth atheistic ideas in the early modern sense. His plays consistently challenge providence as a mode of understanding the world.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.54718/PIVA9600
Date Defended
4-24-2025
Thesis Director
Eric Vivier, Ph.D.
Second Committee Member
Lara Dodds, Ph.D.
Third Committee Member
Thomas Anderson, Ph.D.
Recommended Citation
White, Will, ""To Keep Men in Awe": Religious Subversion and Anti-Providentialism in Marlowe's Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta" (2025). Honors Theses. 146.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/honorstheses/146
