| Freethought Archives >> Walter R. Cassels >> | Supernatural Religion |
| A Reply to Dr Lightfoot's Essays |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"Do not waste life clinging to ecclesiastical dogmas which represent no eternal verities,
but search elsewhere for truth which may haply be found."
Walter Richard Cassels was born in London
on 4 September 1826. His father Robert was a British consular
official, and Walter spent much of his early life in India.
Eventually he went into partnership with two of his brothers in a
business firm in Bombay. He served in the legislative council of
Bombay from 1863 to 1865. After 1865 Cassels returned to England.
In 1874 an anonymous work appeared entitled Supernatural Religion: An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation. The work attracted immediate attention, and there was much speculation as to the identity of the learned author; however, no one would admit to the authorship. Many books and articles were soon written responding to the criticism of Christianity made in Supernatural Religion. The most famous of these is a series of essays by Bishop J.B. Lightfoot. The Bishop's essays were later collected and published as a book. Meanwhile, the author of Supernatural Religion was finding his book had gone into a sixth printing by 1875. In 1877 a third volume was added, and a completely revised edition appeared in 1879. A series of anonymous replies to Bishop Lightfoot and other critics appeared -- one as a series of magazine articles, the others as notes or prefaces to subsequent printings of Supernatural Religion. These refutations were also collected and published as a book.
Word of Cassels' authorship of Supernatural Religion began to leak out in 1895, when he published a series of signed articles on theology. However, Cassels never made public acknowledgement of the fact that he wrote Supernatural Religion. In fact, very little is actually known about Cassels' private life, or of how he became such an expert in the early history of Christianity. It is known that he collected art, wrote poetry, and was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He never married and died in London on 10 June 1907.
SOURCES:
An
Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism. Edited
by Gordon Stein. (Prometheus Books, 1980)
Dictionary of National Biography, 2nd Supplement, Vol I.
(Smith Elder & Co, 1912.)
Photograph: History
of Freethought in the Nineteenth Century (1929) by J.M.
Robertson.
CASSELS BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works published under Cassels' own name [Hosted offsite]
Poems.
Smith, Elder & Co.:
London, 1856.
Cotton: An Account of its Culture in the Bombay
Presidency.
Bombay Education Society
Press, 1862. [Offsite
review]
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"Supernatural Religion... excited much
interest by the outspoken criticism pervading it. The
learned work furnishes efficient aid to rational
inquiry, and deserves to be studied by all lovers of
free investigation. The assaults which were made upon
minor details leave its main positions
unharmed." -- Samuel Davidson, D.D., L.L.D., Introduction to the Study of the New Testament, Preface to 2nd edition (1882). |
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"The
answer which Lightfoot, the late Bishop of Durham,
offered in the name of orthodoxy... is extraordinarily
weak... the short-sighted scholar [Lightfoot] found
nothing better to do than to submit [Cassels']
examination of references in the Fathers to the Gospels
to petty criticism; while, even if all the Bishop's
deductions were correct, the general result of [Cassels']
inquiries would not be in any way altered. It is not
surprising that in his reply to Bishop Lightfoot... [Cassels]
not only adheres to his historical positions as not
upset, but that he also repeats his general conclusions
in a form of more pronounced antagonism." -- Otto Pfleiderer, D.D., The Development of Theology since Kant (1890). |
FURTHER READING
Tracks
of a Rolling Stone (1905), the autobiography of
Cassels' friend, neighbour, and fellow freethinker, Henry J.
Coke (1827-1916). Includes a brief account of Coke's
friendship with Cassels.
"Matthew Arnold and 'The Author of Supernatural
Religion': The Background to God and the Bible",
by Jerold J. Savory. Studies
in English Literature, 1500-1900, Autumn 1976 (Vol
16 no 4), pp. 677-91. Article contrasting Cassels' work with
the liberal theology of Matthew
Arnold (1822-1888). [Note: JSTOR
subscription required to view article online.]
"Male Diagnosis of the Female Pen in Late Victorian Britain: Private Assessments of Supernatural Religion", by Alan H. Cadwallader. Journal of Anglican Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 69-88 (2007). Article dealing with Victorian speculation that the anonymous author of Supernatural Religion was a woman. [Note: SAGE subscription required to view article online.]
CRITIQUES OF SUPERNATURAL RELIGION
A Brief Defence of Supernatural Christianity (1875), by John Kennedy (1813-1900). "Being a Review of the Philosophical Principles and Historical Arguments of the Book entitled Supernatural Religion."
The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth (1875), by Matthew H. Habershon (1821-1910). "A Reply to Supernatural Religion."
The Lost Gospel and Its Contents (1875), by Michael F. Sadler (1819-1895). "The Author of Supernatural Religion Refuted by Himself."
The Gospels in the Second Century (1876), by William Sanday (1843-1920). "An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work Entitled Supernatural Religion."
Essays
on Supernatural Religion (1889), by Joseph
B. Lightfoot (1828-1889). "Reprinted from the Contemporary
Review."