A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 of 2: Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumesRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 of 2: Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumes
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Free thought -- History
Contributions to the general history of freethought, further,
have been made in the works of J. W. Draper (A History of the
Intellectual Development of Europe, 2 vols, 1861, many reprints;
and History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, 1873,
many reprints), both full of suggestion and stimulus, but requiring
thorough revision as to detail; in the famous Introduction
to the History of Civilization in England of H. T. Buckle (2
vols. 1857-61; new ed. in 1 vol. with annotations by the present
writer, 1904); in the History of the Rise and Influence of the
Spirit of Rationalism in Europe of W. E. H. Lecky (2 vols. 1865;
R. P. A. rep. 1910), who was of Buckle's school, but fell below
him in point of coherence; in the comprehensive History of the
Warfare of Science with Theology of Professor Andrew D. White (2
vols. 1896--a great expansion of his earlier essay, The Warfare of
Science, 2nd ed. 1877); and in the essay of Mr. E. S. P. Haynes,
Religious Persecution: A Study in Political Psychology (1904;
R. P. A. rep. 1906), as well as in many histories of philosophy
and of sciences.
The so-called History of Rationalism of the American Bishop
J. F. Hurst, first published in 1865, and "revised" in 1901,
is in the main a work of odium theologicum, dealing chiefly
with the evolution of theology and criticism in Germany since
the Reformation. Even to that purpose it is very inadequate. Its
preface alleges that "happily the vital body of evangelical truth
has received only comparatively weak and timorous attacks from the
more modern representatives of the rank and rabid rationalism which
reached its climax near the close of the eighteenth, and has had
a continuous decline through the nineteenth, century." It urges,
however, as a reason for defensive activity, the consideration that
"the work of Satan is never planless"; and further pronounces that
the work of rationalism "must determine its character. This work
has been most injurious to the faith and life of the Church, and
its deeds must therefore be its condemnation" (Introd. p. 3). Thus
the latest approximation to a history of theological rationalism
by a clerical writer is the most negligible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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