The Age of Reason, published in two parts in 1794 and 1795, is Thomas Paine's popularisation of deist argument, written in the plain, widely accessible style that had already made his political pamphleteering influential in America, Britain and France. Paine argued for belief in a single creator known through reason and the natural world while attacking organised churches, scripture and clerical authority in sharper and more polemical terms than earlier English deists such as Herbert of Cherbury had used, and the book reached a far wider popular readership than the more academic deist writing of the previous century. It provoked strong backlash on both sides of the Atlantic and is widely credited with bringing deist argument to a mass audience beyond the educated elite the earlier English deists had chiefly written for.
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Origins
Era of Composition Attributed Author / Compiler Structure
StructureTwo parts, published separately in 1794 and 1795, the first written as Paine anticipated arrest during the French Terror and the second completed following his release from imprisonment. 1 Status
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This source names Americas directly: "The Age of Reason, published in two parts in 1794 and 1795, is Thomas Paine's popularisation of deist argument, written in the plain, widely accessible style that had already made his political..."
This source names France directly: "influential in America, Britain and France."
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Deism's most widely read popularisation.
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