Leviathan is a work of political philosophy published in 1651 by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Written during the English Civil Wars of the 17th century, the book is enormously influential as a pioneering work of social contract theory, which dictates that citizens of a sovereign state consent to give up certain rights to authority figures in exchange for domestic order and protection from foreign invaders. Absent this contract with authority, Hobbes argues, humans will devolve into a state of total and perpetual war with one another, a condition described by modern scholars as “Hobbesian.” The title refers to the Book of Job, likening the sea creature leviathan from that story to an all-powerful and fear-inducing sovereign ruler. This study guide refers to the 1994 edition published by Hackett Publishing.

Leviathan is divided into four parts. In Part 1, “Of Man,” Hobbes writes that humankind is governed first and foremost by natural laws dictating that each individual prioritize self-preservation above all else. In the absence of a central authority figure, there is nothing to restrain humans from existing in a state of perpetual war with one another in which resources, honor, and glory are all fought over in an endless cycle of violence. In the book’s most famous passage, Hobbes writes that under these conditions life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (76).

Given that natural law allows for each individual’s self-preservation, humans face no choice but to find a way to live peaceably among one another. For Hobbes, the best and only way to do so is to live in a commonwealth, a kingdom or nation-state led by an undivided central authority figure. In such commonwealths, a covenant is forged between ruler and subject in which subjects surrender certain liberties—like the freedom to kill one another—in exchange for protection and order under the civil laws that are established and upheld by a sovereign ruler or assembly. This covenant also requires total obedience from each subject. To break that covenant, either through civil disobedience or outright rebellion, is to violate natural law, Hobbes argues.

In Part 2, “Of the Commonwealth,” Hobbes examines different types of sovereignty while identifying qualities that must be shared across all commonwealths to ensure their survival. Commonwealths may be one of three types: monarchies, in which one individual possesses absolute sovereign power; democracies, in which a representative assembly shares that power; or aristocracies, in which power is held by an assembly that only represents a small portion of the citizenry. Of the three, Hobbes prefers monarchies because assemblies are more likely to divide themselves into rival factions, jeopardizing the total obedience subjects owe under the sovereign covenant. After all, he argues, an individual cannot obey two masters.

Owing to Hobbes’s strong antipathy toward civil war and all other states of barbarism into which he believes humans fall without central authority, the author finds no justifiable pretext under which the sovereign covenant, once established, may be broken through rebellion. Having willingly subjected themselves to a sovereign ruler, subjects must accept any and all behavior by the sovereign as if it is their own. To Hobbes, that means sovereigns are not subject to civil law or criticism of their actions, except in cases when honest counsel is requested by the ruler. In explaining why a sovereign is not subject to his or her own civil laws, Hobbes writes, “because it setteth the laws above the sovereign, setteth also a judge above him, and a power to punish him; which is to make a new sovereign; a third to punish the second and so on” (213). The only conditions under which the covenant between sovereign and subject may be broken is if the army of a foreign state vanquishes the sovereign ruler, thereby rendering the sovereign unable to protect his or her subjects as promised in the original pact.

Having established the natural laws that govern humankind, and having argued in favor of a commonwealth led by a single sovereign ruler as the most just form of government under those laws, Hobbes presents a lengthy argument as to why spiritual and ecclesiastical leaders like the pope must also be subordinate to civil sovereigns. For Hobbes, the chief question pertaining to this concern is: How do Christians maintain obedience to both God and their civil sovereigns—particularly if, as Hobbes argues earlier, a human cannot serve two masters?

In Part 3, “Of a Christian Commonwealth,” Hobbes draws from the Bible to argue that for as long as Jews and Christians lived in commonwealths, they did so under sovereign rulers to whom God demanded absolute obedience from subjects. Hobbes traces the lineage of Jewish and Christian sovereigns from Abraham to Moses, then to the office of the high priest, and later the era of Jewish kings that began with Saul. Of Christ, Hobbes writes that Jesus was not considered a civil sovereign by his followers but rather one who was anointed to become king only upon his second coming. As evidence of this, Hobbes cites Jesus’s exhortation to his followers that they continue to pay taxes to Caesar under Roman civil law.

From the death of Christ up until the conversion of Western sovereigns to Christianity, God’s chosen lieutenants were the apostles and those selected to follow in their footsteps. Their power, however, was of a persuasive nature rather than a coercive nature. Hobbes views the pope in similar terms, as a figure whose purpose is to preach and instruct but not to rule as a sovereign in dominions outside his own. Therefore, unless the pope chooses to invade the territory of another sovereign’s domain, that sovereign’s authority over matters both civil and spiritual is uncontested.

From all this, Hobbes concludes that obedience to God and obedience to one’s sovereign cannot be contradictory. To those worried about entering the kingdom of heaven upon Jesus’s second coming, the author poses only two necessary conditions to ensure one’s admission: accept Jesus as the savior and obey God’s laws—which include the laws of his lieutenant, the sovereign.

Finally, in Part 4, “Of the Kingdom of Darkness,” Hobbes harshly criticizes various practices and rituals of the Catholic Church, for which he finds little precedent in scripture and which, in his mind, are utilized by the pope and his bishops for the purpose of seizing power from justly anointed civil sovereigns.