King David and Uriah the Hittite in the Political Thought of Thomas Hobbes by Thomas S. Schrock

The most neglected aspect of Hobbes's attempt to solve the theological political problem is his reliance on divine punishment of the iniquitous sovereign. By turning that matter exclusively over to God or? what comes to the same thing? by immunizing such a sovereign against accountability to his subjects, Hobbes radicalizes a Christian motif and fragments what for Aristotle had been an integral political whole. This essay is about that fragmentation, with special attention to the text in which Hobbes makes his intention partially clear? his discussion of King David's murder of Uriah the Hittite.