The nature and extent of Isaac Newton’s religiosity has become a dominant feature of Newtonian scholarship, ever since the opening of the Jerusalem archives. However, whereas Richard Westfall, for example, could acknowledge Newton’s piety, and recognize the earnestness with which he had pursued his theological studies without contending that they necessarily shaped Newton’s science, more recent scholars have insisted on ascribing a single source of inspiration to both domains. My paper will insist on the need to avoid considering Newton to have remained one and the same from birth to death, or that radical religious beliefs had been integral to his scientific activities from the start. Rather, I shall argue, Newton’s theological opinions evolved over time—and later than contemporary scholars assume.
