New Atlantis

What are some of the religious symbols and motifs Bacon uses? What purpose do you believe these serve? And what do you make of the scholarly argument that Bacon’s use of Christian imagery is disingenuous?

How would you characterize Bensalem’s political system? Is it a religious monarchy? An authoritarian technocracy? Point to elements in the text that either simplify or complicate efforts to determine a unified political theory undergirding Bacon’s work.

How does Bensalem represent Bacon’s belief that science and religion, though separate, are not incongruous with one another?