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WORK TITLE: Priest of Nature
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NATIONALITY: British
http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-robert-iliffe * http://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/about/news/professor-robert-iliffe * https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/isaac-newton-was-a-fierce-critic-of-the-trinitarian-corruption-of-christianity-priest-of-nature-reviewed/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian, educator, and writer. Oxford University, Oxford, England, professor of the history of science and codirector of the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, fellow of Linacre College, and general editor of the Newton Project. Previously taught at University of Sussex.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including London and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Derek Keene, Institute of Historical Research, 2012; Newton and the Netherlands: How Isaac Newton Was Fashioned in the Dutch Republic, Leiden University Press, 2013; and The Uses of Humans in Experiment: Perspectives from the 17th to the 20th Century, edited by E. Dyck and L. Stewart, Brill Rodopi, 2016. Editor of History of Science, 2001-08; coeditor of Annals of Science.
SIDELIGHTS
Rob Iliffe is a historian who has written about his primary research interests, including the history of early modern and Enlightenment science. Iliffe is particularly interested in historical interactions between science and religion, scientific voyages of discovery, the life and work of Isaac Newton, the development of ideas about scientific genius and scientific creativity, and the role of scientific instruments in scientific innovation. He is the author or editor of several books about Sir Isaac Newton, a British mathematician, astronomer, theologian, physicist, and author. For example, in his book titled Early Biographies of Isaac Newton: 1660–1885, Iliffe presents a collection of biographies that reveal how Newton’s reputation continued to develop after his death.
Priest of Nature
In his book Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton, Iliffe delves into the religious life of Newton. In the process, he shows the wide range and complexity of Newton’s religious beliefs and writings. According to Iliffe, Newton’s observations of and interests in Christianity and Christian history included theological discussions that covered topics from the Creation to the Apocalypse. “Recent publication of his religious, historical, and chronological papers has provided no support for the notion that there is some simple conceptual or methodological coherence to his work,” Iliffe writes in the introduction to Priest of Nature. Iliffe went on to write later in the introduction that Priest of Nature “takes into account all the millions of his words on religious topics that have recently been published online, including his writings on natural theology, doctrine, prophecy, and church history. By taking seriously what he actually wrote and believed in these many domains, I aim to show that his religious studies were as expansive and technically demanding as any of his investigations in natural science.”
Throughout the book, Iliffe examines how Newton’s writing on religion related to his studies in mathematics and science, especially concerning the relationship between Newton’s work in theology and natural philosophy. “We are all hugely in Rob Iliffe’s debt,” wrote Spectator contributor A.N. Wilson. He added: “Few of us would have the skill, in mathematics or philosophy or divinity, nor the patience, to do what he has done, which is read through the huge extent of Newton’s obsessive theological writings.” Iliffe, however, stresses that Newton’s work in theology and religion was in many ways conducted in an entirely different sphere from that of his scientific pursuits. As a result, Iliffe also discusses Newton’s religious thoughts and writing independently of his scientific accomplishments. Throughout the book, Iliffe also considers Newton’s writings and beliefs within the institutional settings in which the famous scientists grew up, as well as the intellectual cultures that he experienced.
“Iliffe allows his readers to fully engage in the theological discussion that dominated Newton’s age,” wrote MBR Bookwatch contributor Able Greenspan. In the the Spectator article, Wilson remarked: “This is a book which will take you several weeks to read, but the journey is worth it.”
The Cambridge Companion to Newton
Iliffe is also the coeditor with George E. Smith of The Cambridge Companion to Newton, which features articles based on research into Newton’s manuscripts. Many of the manuscripts concerning his religious beliefs had only recently been released at the time. Overall, fifteen authors contributed essays to the book. Contributors cover Newton’s work from his scientific interests in physics and mathematics to his interest in alchemy, religion, and ancient chronology.
In addition to the introduction and preface written with Smith, Iliffe also wrote an essay titled “The Religion of Isaac Newton.” Iliffe points out that Newton kept many of his religious writings secret for fear that, if the public gained knowledge about how Newton denied the Trinity in Christianity, he would likely have lost his position and standing in both science and society. Each chapter includes endnotes. Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libaries contributor M. Dickinson called the book’s introduction “excellent” and went on to recommend it to readers who have some familiarity with Newton’s writings “and who have an understanding of basic physics.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Iliffe, Rob, Priest of Nature: The Religious World of Isaac Newton, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2014.
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, March, 2017, M. Dickinson, review of The Cambridge Companion to Newton, p. 1051.
MBR Bookwatch, August, 2017, Able Greenspan, review of Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton.
Publishers Weekly, May 8, 2017, review of Priest of Nature, p. 56.
ONLINE
Linacre College Website, http://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/ (February 19, 2018), author faculty profile.
Spectator Online, https://www.spectator.co.uk/ (September 30, 2017), A.N. Wilson, “One of the Most Sensational Scoops of Recent Times: Priest of Nature Reviewed.”
University of Oxford Faculty of History Website, https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/ (February 19, 2018), author faculty profile.
Professor Robert Iliffe
rob_iliffe.jpg
Rob Iliffe
Monday 22nd February 2016
Rob Iliffe, a new Fellow at Linacre, is a Professor of History of Science at the University of Oxford. As director of the Newton Papers Project, he oversees the edition of Newton’s writings on the Newton Project (link is external) website. He is the author of Newton: A Very Short Introduction (link is external) (Oxford, 2007) and Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton (link is external) (Oxford, 2015).
On 18 February 2016, in Radio 4’s leading discussion programme, In Our Time, Professor Iliffe discussed the life and work of Robert Hooke (1635-1703) who worked for Robert Boyle and was curator of experiments at the Royal Society. The engraving of a flea is taken from his Micrographia which caused a sensation when published in 1665. Sometimes remembered for his disputes with Newton, Rob Iliffe described how Hooke studied the planets with telescopes and snowflakes with microscopes, and was an early proposer of a theory of evolution, discovered light diffraction with a wave theory to explain it and felt he was rarely given due credit for his discoveries.
Professor of the History of Science
Linacre College
robert.iliffe@linacre.ox.ac.uk
Rob Iliffe is Professor of History of Science at Oxford, Co-Director of the Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a General Editor of the Newton Project. He is the author of A Very Short Introduction to Newton (OUP 2007) and Priest of Nature: the Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton, (OUP 2017), and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Isaac Newton, 2nd ed. (CUP, 2016). He was editor of History of Science from 2001-8 and is currently co-editor of Annals of Science. He has published widely on topics in the history of early modern and Enlightenment science, and particularly on historical interactions between science and religion, scientific voyages of discovery, the life and work of Isaac Newton, the development of ideas about scientific genius and scientific creativity, and the role of scientific instruments in scientific innovation.
At Oxford he teaches general Undergraduate course on history of science and technology courses as well as more specialized courses on the Scientific Revolution, the history of modern physics, and the history of scientific racism and eugenics. At Postgraduate level he teaches courses on the Scientific Revolution and on Evolution and Neo-Malthusianism from 1840 to 1970.
Topics being studied by Professor Iliffe's current DPhil students include the circulation of utopian ideas within Europe from 1500-1700; Samuel Hartlib and English colonialism; the chronological research of Isaac Newton; the scientific and religious thought of Kang Youwei; the geological and ceramic projects of Alexandre Brongniart; the development of Virtual Reality technology in the United States 1965-2005.
Quotes from introduction: pgs. 14, 22
Priest of Nature
Able Greenspan
MBR Bookwatch.
(Aug. 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Priest of Nature
Rob Iliffe
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4314
www.oup.com/us
9780199995356, $34.95, HC, 536pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: An interdisciplinary enthusiast and intellectual giant in a number of disciplines, Issac Newton
published revolutionary, field-defining works that reached across the scientific spectrum, including the
Principia Mathematica and Opticks. His renown opened doors for him throughout his career, ushering him
into prestigious positions at Cambridge, the Royal Mint, and the Royal Society. And yet, alongside his
public success, Newton harbored religious beliefs that set him at odds with law and society, and, if revealed,
threatened not just his livelihood but his life.
His private papers, never made available to the public, were filled with biblical speculation and time lines
along with passages that excoriated the early Church fathers. Indeed, his radical theological leanings
rendered him a heretic, according to the doctrines of the Anglican Church. Newton believed that the central
concept of the Trinity was a diabolical fraud and loathed the idolatry, cruelty, and persecution that had come
to define religion in his time. Instead, he proposed a "simple Christianity"--a faith that would center on a
few core beliefs and celebrate diversity in religious thinking and practice. An utterly original but
obsessively private religious thinker, Newton composed several of the most daring works of any writer of
the early modern period, works which he and his inheritors suppressed and which have been largely
inaccessible for centuries.
In "Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton", Rob Iliffe (Professor of History at the
University of Oxford and the General Editor of the online Newton Project) introduces readers to the
religious Newton, deepening our understanding of the relationship between faith and science at a formative
moment in history and thought. Professor Iliffe shows how wide-ranging Newton's religious observations
and interests were, spanning the entirety of Christian history from Creation to the Apocalypse. Professor
Iliffe allows his readers to fully engage in the theological discussion that dominated Newton's age.
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Critique: A seminal work of original and comprehensive scholarship, "Priest of Nature" is an impressively
informed and informative biography that is a unique and invaluable contribution to an accurate
understanding of the life and work of one of the true trailblazers of science in general, and how we now
perceive the physics of the universe in particular. While unreservedly and emphatically recommended as a
core addition to both community and academic library collections, it should be noted for the personal
reading lists of students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Priest of
Nature" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.39).
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Greenspan, Able. "Priest of Nature." MBR Bookwatch, Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504178027/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a3b0b351.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504178027
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Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of
Isaac Newton
Publishers Weekly.
264.19 (May 8, 2017): p56.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton
Rob Iliffe. Oxford, $34.95 (512p) ISBN 978-019-999535-6
In this compelling look at Isaac Newton, Iliffe (Newton: A Very Short Introduction), professor of history at
the University of Oxford, draws deeply on newly available papers to explore Newton's lifelong fascination
with theological matters. Iliffe skillfully chronicles Newton's life from his childhood and his college years at
Trinity College, Cambridge, to his later experiments in physics and the writings that gained him notoriety
(especially the Principia Mathematica) at a time when religious and political controversies were swirling
around England. Iliffe adroitly illustrates that, from the beginning, Newton displayed deep interests in
scriptural interpretation, the history of the early Church, and the idea of prophecy, notably as it relates to the
book of Revelation. He points out that in the "General Scholium," an appendix to the Principia, Newton
challenges the notion that Jesus is simply God in human form by stressing that the divine mode of being in
our world is completely unknown to us. Iliffe's fascinating study provides an absorbing glimpse into
Newton's work and early modern culture. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton." Publishers Weekly, 8 May 2017, p. 56. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491949140/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2a88cfc4. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491949140
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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The Cambridge companion to Newton
M. Dickinson
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
54.7 (Mar. 2017): p1051.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
The Cambridge companion to Newton, ed. by Rob Iliffe and George E. Smith. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 2016.
637p bibl index afp ISBN 9781107015463 cloth, $120.00; ISBN 9781107601741 pbk, $36.99; ISBN
9781316547410 ebook, $30.00
54-3289
QC16
2015-40735
CIP
Research on Sir Isaac Newton's extensive collection of manuscripts is continuous. Many of these
manuscripts have only recently been made available to scholars. This update to the first edition (CFI,
Jan'03, 40-2759) of The Cambridge Companion includes articles on the latest research into these
manuscripts. After an excellent introduction, chapters by 15 authors cover Newton's works on physics,
mathematics, alchemy, religion, ancient chronology, and more. In each chapter, the authors write from a
depth of expertise apparent in the detailed expositions and arguments. One area yet to be covered is
Newton's numerous years spent at the mint. Newton was ever reluctant to publish his work, even in physics.
His writings on religious ideas were secret, as he would no doubt have lost his positions and acclaim, had
his denial of the Trinity become known. This excellent volume will be of most interest to those who have
read at least some of Newton's Principia and Opticks, and who have an understanding of basic physics.
Each chapter or article has extensive endnotes. An introduction is included. One should note that most of
the manuscripts are now available online at The Newton Project, http:// www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk
(CH, Jan'04, 41-2784). Summing Up: **** Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and
professionals.--M. Dickinson, Maine Maritime Academy
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Dickinson, M. "The Cambridge companion to Newton." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic
Libraries, Mar. 2017, p. 1051. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490476045/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=78aaad13.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490476045
One of the most sensational scoops of recent times: Priest of Nature reviewed
Rob Iliffe digs up some fascinating finds in Newton’s almost totally forgotten theological writings
A.N. Wilson
Sir Isaac Newton, by Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723): Newton was a secret, though fierce critic of the ‘Holy’ Trinity
Sir Isaac Newton, by Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723): Newton was a secret, though fierce critic of the ‘Holy’ Trinity
30 September 2017 9:00 AM
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Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton
Rob Iliffe
Oxford University Press, pp.522, £22.99
John Calvin believed that human nature was a ‘permanent factory of idols’; the mind conceived them, and the hand gave them birth. Isaac Newton acquired a copy of Calvin’s Institutes when he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661 as a teenager. By the time he was a mature man, however, Newton’s determined effort to strip the mind of superstitious superfluities had far outstripped the austere predestinarian of Geneva. As a Fellow of Trinity, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1669 onwards, Newton was obliged to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. It was noted that, most unusually for a Cambridge academic at this period, he refused to take Holy Orders. In addition to his public work as a mathematician and physicist, Newton undertook work which was, perforce, utterly secret. This was his re-examination of Christian doctrine from its historical foundations. Had this work been made public, he would have been forced to resign all his public and academic positions. For he had come to the conclusion, by the time he reached maturity, that the central doctrines of Christianity, as outlined in the Creeds and the Articles, were monstrous idolatries, inventions, Satanic perversions of true religion. Above all, he excoriated Athanasius for persuading the Council of Nicaea to adopt the plainly, as Newton would see it, idolatrous view that Jesus had been the divine Second Person of the Trinity.
Rob Iliffe, professor of history at Oxford, begins his study of Newton’s religious thought by saying, ‘Newton’s extensive writings on the Trinitarian corruption of Christianity are among the most daring works of any writer in the early modern period, and they would merit careful study even if they had not been composed by the author of the Principia.’ Presumably, Iliffe means that the writings are ‘daring’ in their conclusions, as Newton was not so ‘daring’ as to publish them — which would have spelt personal ruin. All his work on gravity, cosmology, mathematics, the colour spectrum, and so on would have been conducted, not in the spacious setting of Trinity, but in a garret, and it is unlikely that the world would have heeded them so readily had they not come from the Lucasian professor. So obsessed was Newton by his religious views and writings, however, that he longed to get out of Cambridge, and settle in London, if only a convenient post could be found. But when Locke wangled him the Mastership of the Charterhouse, at £200 p.a. with a coach, this was not a sufficient lure.
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We are all hugely in Rob Iliffe’s debt. Few of us would have the skill, in mathematics or philosophy or divinity, nor the patience, to do what he has done, which is read through the huge extent of Newton’s obsessive theological writings. He, together with a team of industrious scholars, has helped to put online the writings which had hitherto been visible only in academic libraries, such as New College, Oxford, King’s College, Cambridge, and the Fitz-william Museum. Most of this stuff had either been totally forgotten, or never even read, until the last 15 years; so that, as well as being a punctilious, painstaking historical work of the utmost density, this book also constitutes one of the most sensational ‘scoops’ of recent times.
What emerges is something which will fascinate any student of Newton and the 17th century, but which will also give any honest Orthodox Christian pause. On the one hand, Newton emerges from these pages as a crackpot, who believed himself to be one of the remnant of true believers, mentioned in the book of the Apocalypse, who would be resurrected to rule over mortals in the Millennium. On the other, his was one of the most acute, most searching, of all human intelligences. He had researched every aspect of the history of Catholic doctrine, and his account of how the Creeds evolved, though laced with the violent anti-Catholic prejudice of their times and coloured by apocalyptic fervour, would be broadly in step with the mainstream of scholarship since the 19th century: namely that full-blown doctrinal Trinitarianism can only be found in the New Testament if the reader, consciously or unconsciously, puts it there.
Iliffe demands from his reader a very full concentration on the knotty issues which possessed the minds of Desert Fathers, Arians, and the Fathers of the Church, the Cambridge Platonists, the materialists who followed Hobbes, as well as the saner and more congenial thought-processes of Locke and Hooke. At times, the reader is reminded of the fact that for much of his long life, Newton was the contemporary of Swift; and it is all that one can do to remind oneself that one is reading an academic work, rather than having strayed into the pages of Gulliver’s Travels. It is not altogether surprising, in the final chapter, when Locke, Pepys and others begin to notice that Newton’s outbursts of paranoia went beyond the eccentric. The Dutch natural philosopher Christian Huygens noted that Newton, during a conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, had betrayed signs of madness, and that his friends had led him away and kept him under house arrest for a considerable period in 1694. Sadly, we are not told how the conversation went. He recovered his wits, and lived to his mid-eighties. This is a book which will take you several weeks to read, but the journey is worth it.