Throughout history, women were considered lesser than men, property. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle during the 17th century is well known for her work as a philosopher, poet, a fiction-writer and a playwright. England at the time, was going through a period of change. King James I became the King of England after Victoria I and put out a different version of the bible. By law, everyone was supposed to belong to the Church of England. Margaret Cavendish was a British citizen, therefore she belonged to the church. Margaret Cavendish was well known for her work, mainly because she published her works under her own name. She did not do as many other women did and publish under a pseudonym . She wanted everyone to know what her thoughts were and who was thinking them. She refused to let someone else take the credit for her work. Cavendish’s Philosophical works seemed to focus mainly on spirituality and nature rather than religion. As I read through articles written by different researchers, I have come to find that though Cavendish spoke about spirituality, the times in which she wrote and her topic of choice, I believe that Margaret Cavendish is in fact an atheist.
Margaret Cavendish is an important woman in history. Her works were recognized in a time where women were deemed lesser than men. She must have been viewed as an “eccentric” woman who used fanciful speech to get her point across. Her eccentric qualities came from the fact that she thought differently to those of her time. She believed that she had a right to write about whatever she pleased. I am quite sure she received backlash from both males and females as this was not a normal thing to do. Whether or not Cavendish was an atheist is up for discussion. In her article “Margaret Cavendish, Feminist Ethics and the Problem of Evil”, Jill Grasper Hernandez states that Cavendish was a “contemporary feminist” who “defended God against blame for pernicious evil, [while attempting to] minimize political injustice, against women.” It begs to ponder, would individuals assume that Cavendish is an atheist because of her stand against the norms of her time? Hernandez’s article went on to say that it was Cavendish’s non-orthodox views of theology that has researchers questioning her religious affiliation. Cavendish while believing in a higher power she believed that “Nature itself is so guided by physical laws that there cannot be disorder” (Hernandez, 3). Any Christian during the 17th century would take this as a confession of her disbelief. When taught the bible and the works of Christ, it is always mentioned that God can do all things; He told the winds to stop howling and they did. Through out her article, Hernandez barely mentioned her thoughts on Cavendish’s affiliation, mainly pointing everything done by Cavendish as mainly being a feminist; but by saying that nature is guided by a force other than God does seem to be of an atheist mentality.
In contrast to Jill Grasper Hernandez, Author Holly Faith Nelson, thinks that Margaret Cavendish is a Christian but has a good amount of skepticism. In her article “"A Good Christian, and a Good Natural Philosopher": Margaret Cavendish's Theory of the Soul(s) in the Early Enlightenment” Nelson argues that Margaret Cavendish is an atheist who claims that she does not write on supernatural notions but her philosophical writing disprove that. According to Nelson’s article, Cavendish believed that “theological matters fall within the domain of the church and she had no intention of encroaching on [their] territory.” (Nelson, 947-948) but in attempting to do so, she gave people the impression that she was an atheist. Though Cavendish explained that she accepted the church’s teachings she also stated that “she would be a good christian and a good natural philosopher” (Nelson, 949). Cavendish to prove this, made sure to use the bible as a reference guide when doing her writings. However, because Cavendish believed that theology belonged to the church, she “would argue that religion should be contained and controlled by a select few.” (949) Interestingly enough, most of Cavendish’s work centred around “spiritual subjects” that she proves using the bible, which contradicts her earlier words.
With this in mind, it begs to question how much of her work did Cavendish believe and how much did it affect the way she viewed the world? If you say something enough times, soon enough you will believe it. If Margaret Cavendish spent most of her philosophical works trying to distance her ideas from religion and the church, did she over time stop believing? Cavendish grew up hearing the word and reading the bible, so she knows of God and she believed. I think that the older she became, and the more she wrote, the less she believed in God.An atheist, is “a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God.” Knowing of something and believing it are two different things, and Cavendish toed the line. She was a woman with a cause, to get rid of sexism. Now, Cavendish was a smart woman who knew that there were certain things that she had to do in order to get her point across. Being a woman, she knew that whatever she had to say would be met with skepticism. This is why she made sure to use scriptures as an enforcer, because she knew that she lived in a deeply religious time and people would take the time to read her work instead of just throwing it out. It was her bid to prove that she was not an atheist leads me to believe that she was atheist. Around that time, protestantism would have been in full form, meaning that books were being made and more and more people were becoming educated. Seeing as though her main targets were men and their wives, Cavendish knew that being politically correct would have been something she needed to do. She knew that what she had to say would not be accepted by church going men and women if she did not incorporate the bible somehow.
In conclusion, by trying to distance herself from the church, Margaret Cavendish advertised herself to be an atheist, which she further proved in her works. But, upon receiving the backlash, she had to do some damage control. She used what was taught to her from childhood to benefit herself, essentially becoming an an atheist who knew how to think like a christian.