Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Chapter 31 summary

What happens

1. The narrator defines God’s subjects and distinguishes divine government through natural reason from government through prophecy.
2. He grounds God’s authority in irresistible power and uses scriptural examples to deny that suffering always proves sin.
3. He distinguishes inward honor from outward worship and explains natural, conventional, commanded, voluntary, public, and private forms.
4. He identifies fitting divine attributes and acts of worship, placing obedience to natural law above sacrifice.
5. He requires uniform public worship under sovereign direction, while excluding acts that naturally express insult.
6. He describes natural punishments as consequences and expresses hope that a sovereign puts his political teaching into practice.

In this chapter

Quick check