But how could Hobbes solve the problem of civil theology?

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Faced with competing Protestant sects, a remnant of Catholics, some Jews, and aware of the existence of Islam… what could Hobbes do about his correct perception that a single civil theology is needed to create a stable political order? He could solve this problem by “freezing history into an everlasting final realm on this earth.”

“The idea of solving the troubles of history through the invention of the everlasting constitution made sense only under the conditions that the source of these troubles, that is, the truth of the soul, would cease to agitate man. Hobbes, indeed, simplify the structure of politics by throwing out anthropological and soteriological truth. That is an understandable desire in a man who wants his peace; things, to be sure, would be so much simpler without philosophy and Christianity. But how can one dispose of them without abolishing the experiences of transcendence which belong to the nature of man? Hobbes was quite able to solve this problem, too; he improved on the man of God‘s creation by creating a man without such experiences.” — The New Science of Politics, p. 161

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