Bacon’s Wedding: Political Theology of Family and Royal Marriage Tradition in Redargutio philosophiarum, 1608

This article revisits the 2008 debate on Francis Bacon’s wedding metaphor in Redargutio philosophiarum, 1608. Unlike historiographic salvagism and feminist environmentalism, I consider the religious intent of the text, thus resisting the secularist reading of the scientific revolution. I argue for framing this cosmic wedding (connubium) as a political theology, an enchanted concept of family employed to domesticate the scientific project and guarantee the reproduction of future scientists. To establish my argument, I will contextualize Bacon’s theology within the English Reformation. Following Katharine Park’s cues, I will then discuss the late medieval Royal Marriage tradition, framing its pulse with what queer scholars have called “repronormativity.” Third, I shall discuss with Social Reproduction Feminism the role of Nature in this marriage: a wife whose task is to produce the “offspring of heroes.” The conclusion foregrounds the significance of the political theology of family in contemporary discourses of ecology and earth future.