Nathaniel Culverwell

Nathaniel Culverwell (alternative spellings Nathanael or Culverwel; 1619–1651) was an English author and theologian, born in Middlesex.

He was the second of six children of Richard and Margaret (Horton) Culverwell.[1] He was baptized on 14 January 1619 at the church of St. Margaret Moses where his father was rector.

He was a student (admitted 1633) and later a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[2] He was associated with members of the Cambridge Platonists group.[3]

Culverwell was one of the first people in England to read Descartes, and the first of the Cambridge Platonists to publish his own ideas; he believed in free will, the intrinsic goodness of all things, and that both the soul and the ability to reason come from God.[3]

Works

  • Spiritual Optics, or a Glass Discovering the Weakness and Imperfection of a Christian's Knowledge in this Life, 1651
  • An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature, 1652 [4] – His best-known work, this was originally delivered as a series of lectures in 1645–1646, and attempted mediation between reason and faith, via natural law, in the context of the opposing religious stances of the English Civil War.
  • Worth of Souls
  • The Schisme
  • Act of Oblivion
  • Child's Return
  • Panting Soul
  • Mount Ebal
  • White Stone

References

  1. ↑ Family and baptism information from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register of April 1994, p. 124.
  2. ↑ "Culverwell, Nathaniel (CLVL633N)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. 1 2 Hutton, Sarah (9 June 2020). "The Cambridge Platonists". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archive. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  4. ↑ "Nathaniel Culverwell (1619-1651)". Post Reformation Digital Library. Retrieved 28 June 2026.


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