Joseph Butler (June 16th), was the greatest defender of orthodox
Christianity in Britain during the 18th century, contributing greatly to the resuscitation of the Church of England which had come to its lowest ebb. He was born in 1692 into a Presbyterian family. As a student he demonstrated extraordinary powers of reasoning. Although his father had intended him for the Presbyterian ministry. Butler in his early 20's employed that great reasoning and became an Anglican instead!
He entered Oxford in 1715 for theological studies and was ordained a priest in 1718. He was made Preacher to the Rolls Chapel in London, there gaining a national reputation for his sermons on human nature. In 1726, he became Rector of Stanhope in County Durham, where he began to write his most famous work, The Analogy of Religion (pub. 1736). This work ranks as one of the very greatest since the Reformation. A lofty defense of Christian thought, it is directed against the Deism and secular Rationalism that had captured England and even parts of the Church. Ironically, Butler refutes his targets by using their own methodology and vocabulary, arguing for the "reasonable probability" of Christian thought and showing that trustworthy evidence for faith is given by reason, conscience, and nature. The Analogy of Religion made an immediate impact and it remained one of the most influential works of religious and philosophical thought through the 19th century. Butler was hailed at the time as 'the greatest of all the thinkers of the English Church."
He was made Bishop of Bristol in 1738 (where he opposed the Evangelical revivalism of the day) and, declining to be made Archbishop of Canterbury, he was translated to the bishopric of Durham in 1750. Butler died on June 16, 1752 and was buried in Bristol Cathedral. |
