John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious: Text, Associated Works and Critical Essays (Paperback)

~ (Author), Alan Harrison (Editor), Richard Kearney (Editor), Philip McGuinness (Editor)

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Product Description

On 18 September 1697, "Christainity not Mysterious" was burned in Dublin by order of Parliament. This edition of the text is now available 300 years later and also includes John Toland's defences of the work and eight critical essays. Toland's work argues that "there is nothing in the Gospels contrary to reason" and that the so-called Christian mysteries are merely the inventions of competing sects. This view threatened the very basis of the supremacy of the Established Church over the other churches in Ireland. Toland was forced to leave Ireland and spent the remainder of his life on the European continent, "Christianity not Mysterious" was rather more successful as well as influential. Toland's defence of reason over revelation in Christian belief went farther than Locke and other previous rationalists had dared, and so provoked a distinguished Irish counter-tradition that included Swift, Berkeley, King, Burke and many others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Lilliput Press (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1874675953
• ISBN-13: 978-1874675952
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,031,469 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Between the lines, February 7, 2003

By	Darin Williams (Tampa Bay, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Toland's oft-cited Deistical work reads as apologetic rather than truly controversial. The actual rhetorical attacks on Christianity are found not in what Toland says, but rather what he doesn't. Toland frequently sets up strong, reason-based objections to fundamentally held religious "truths" only to excuse them with deliberately weak responses. The burden of truth carefully remains with the defenders of revelation and is never realized in this debate Toland pretends to have with himself.
Other than the occasional questioning of clerical interpretations (Toland frequently expounds a commonly held truism and after defending it philosophically on it's own "merits" he often adds at the end, as if to paralyze the Church with indecision regarding his infidelity, "if it be true.") he pretends agreement with the Church in nearly every doctrinal detail.
In this pre-pantheist dissertation, Toland's words are nearly silent with respect to a true rebellion against the established dogma of the Church, but the unwritten screams to a deafening crescendo for an immediate ascension to unrevealed reason.
With cunning and an apparently insatiable appetite for controversy, Toland does a marvelous job of appearing to walk the literary fence dividing the heathens from the faithful. But an occasional glace between the lines will leave no doubt as to where he truly stood.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise way to show the Irish enlightement, July 22, 1999

By A Customer

The book focuses on the famous Toland work "Christianity Not Mysterious". Toland tried, in his opinion, to clean the Christianity of all strange elements that destroy his original purpose. Toland thank that the correct way to realize his purpose was the strictly use of reason. But Toland, at the same time, reflects a strong rationalism, if we use a common expression in philosophy of religion, that cause an enormous opposition of the stablished Church in Ireland. The book also contains another texts that complement that work. The big merit of this publication is to put in only one book some critical views, that gives unity to it. I think is higly recommended for persons that want to study seriously the English deism.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challenge to Superstition, March 19, 2009

By	G. F Gori "Jeffersonian libertarian" (Manteca, ca United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Toland's "Christianity not Mysterious" is one of the great books of freethought. Toland maintains that reason, not revalation, should be the basis of religious belief. Toland believes in God, but maintains that there is nothing contrary to reason in Christianity. He angers the priestly class by showing how ancient pagan rituals were adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, which then found their way into Protestantism.

In essence, Toland relates that anything contrary to reason should be rejected. If we do not know something, we should remain in ignorance rather than embrace superstition and miracles. He also indirectly relates that there are no need for intermediaries between a man and God. I say indirectly because one had to be careful in this era. This book,of course, infuriates the Anglican Church leaders. Consequently, the book is banned and burnt in Ireland, and Toland is forced to flee to the European Continent. A member of the Irish Parliament called for Toland to be burned. Ah..the love of organized religion.year after "Christianity not Mysterious" was published, Scottish freethinker Thomas Aikenhead was burnt at the stake for his anti Christian views.

The essays that follow "Christianity not Mysterious" are great and provide insight into Toland. Toland was a republican and a "Commonwealthman" who edited the libertarian writings of Harrington's "Oceana", and works of John Milton. Toland was a lifelong freethinker, proponent of deism, pantheism, and human liberty. For these reasons he made eternal enemies of the Anglican and Catholic churches.

"Christianity not Mysterious" is a powerful assault on irrationality, superstition, and what he called "priestcraft." Thank Nature's God for a man like Toland. Read the book and free your mind!