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Joseph Priestly (1733-1804)
by bro.Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
Joseph Priestly was born in the little hamlet of Fieldhead six miles south-west of Leeds in 1733. He was the eldest child of a domestic cloth maker. His mother died when he was six years old. At home he was given a strict Calvinist upbringing, but at school his teachers were dissenting ministers, that is to say, priest who did not agree with all the doctrines of the Church of England. With a view to becoming a minister, he became well-grounded in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The Elders of the Quakers refused to admit him, as he did not demonstrate sufficient repentance for Adam's sins. The universities refused to accept anyone who did not subscribe to all the doctrines of the orthodox church. Instead, he was sent to a well-known academy where the teachers and students were divided between the orthodoxy of the established church and the "heresy" of belief in one God. Here he began to doubt the truth of the fundamental dogmas of the Christian church in earnest , especially that of the Trinity. The more he studied the Bible, the more convinced he was about his own views. The writings of Arius, Servetus, and Sozini left a profound impression on him. Like them, he also came to the conclusion that the scriptures provided meagre support for the doctrines of the Trinity and Atonement. The result was that on completion of his studies he left the Academy as a confirmed Arian.
He was appointed as an assistant to a minister on the salary of thirty pounds per annum. When it was discovered that he was an Arian, he was dismissed. In 1758 he succeeded in securing another appointment as a minister in Nantwich in Cheshire. He served there for three years. His income was small but he supplemented it by giving private tuition. He soon acquired the reputation of being a good teacher. The Arians had established an Academy at Warrington in 1757, and on leaving Nantwich , Priestly became a teacher there. He used to visit London during the vacations, and it was on one of those visits that he met Benjamin Franklin for the first time. In 1767 he came nearer his old home, becoming the minister in Mill Hill in Leeds .He stayed there for six years. In Leeds, Priestly printed a number of tracts and soon became well-known as an outstanding and authorative spokesman of Unitarianism. In his spare time, he began to study Chemistry with considerable success. He won recognition from the Royal Society, and in 1774 he made his crowing discovery of oxygen which made him famous. In the research which followed, he discovered more new gases than all his predecessors had done before him. However, he was more interested in religion than in physical science and regarded these discoveries as a theologian's pass time. In his personal memoirs, he passes over these achievements in the space of about a page. He once wrote. "I have made discoveries in some branches of Chemistry. I never gave much attention to the common routine of it, and know but little of the common processes"1.
He next joined the Earl of Shellburne as his librarian and literary companion. He was given a generous salary and a life annuity with the freedom to do what he pleased. He remained at this post for seven years, spending the summers in the Earl's county mansion and the winters in London. He also accompanied the Earl on his journeys to Paris, Holland, Belgium and Germany. The Earl found Priestly's friendship with Benjamin Franklin an embarrassment, since the latter was all in favour of the revolution taking place in France at this time. Priestly officially terminated his friendship with Franklin and shortly afterwards went to stay in Birmingham. His stay in this city lasted for eleven years, and although it ended in a crushing tragedy, it was perhaps the happiest period of his life. His duties as a priest were confined to Sundays and so during the rest of the week he was free to work in his laboratory and to write whatever he wished.
It was in Birmingham that Priestly produced his most important and influential work, History of the Corruptions of Christianity, which greatly angered the established church. He not only denied the validity of the doctrine of Trinity, but also affirmed the humanity of Jesus. He said the narratives of the birth of Jesus were inconsistent with one another. He believed that Jesus was a man, constituted in all respects like other men, subject to the same infirmities, the same ignorance, prejudice and frailties. He was chosen by God to introduce a moral dispensation into the world. He was instructed in the nature of his mission and invested with miraculous powers. Jesus was sent to reveal the great knowledge of the next life in which men would be rewarded according to their acts in this life and not merely by virtue of their having been baptized. These views were not liked either by the government or by the church.
Priestly not only affirmed the humanity of Jesus, but also denied the immaculate conception. He thus laid the foundation of the new thinking which resulted in Unitarianism becoming like a voyage in a boat without a rudder riding on a turbulent sea. A sense of direction is totally missing in the movement known as Unitarian Universalism. This denial of the immaculate conception led to a totally unnecessary and bitter controversy that did more harm than good to those who affirmed the Divine Unity . A similar movement had contributed towards the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror. These events on the other side of the Channel had unnerved many people in England. The orthodox church made it appear that the teaching of Priestly would result in the same kind of tragedy in England. Countless insulting and threatening letters began to arrive at his doorstep, and his effigy was burned in different parts of the country.
On July the 14th 1791, a group of people were celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Basitille in a Birmingham hotel. A mob, whose leaders were the justice of the town, gathered outside and, thinking Priestly was taking part in the celebrations, smashed the hotel windows. Dr. Priestly was not there. The mob then went to his house which, Priestly writes in his memoirs, was "plundered and burnt without mercy"2. His library, his laboratory and all his papers and manuscripts were destroyed in the fire. Priestly, who had been forewarned by a friend, barely escaped with his life. The next day, the house of all the important Unitarians were burnt, and in the two days which followed the mob began to burn the houses of those people who were not professed Unitarians, but who had given shelter and protection to the Unitarians who had been made homeless. During this time the people of Birmingham were in panic. All the shops were closed, and people cried out and wrote on their housed "Church and King" to escape the fury of the mob. It was not until the army was called in that the rioters melted away.
It was now too dangerous for Priestly to remain in Birmingham, and left for London in disguise. Writing about his experiences in Birmingham, he said, "Instead of flying from lawless violence, I had been flying from public justice. I could not have been persuaded with more rancour"3. In London he was unable to openly walk on the streets lest he be recognised and the house of his host attacked and destroyed. After a while he rented a house, The land lord was afraid that not only this house, but also his own might be destroyed.
In 1794, Priestly sailed for America with Benjamin Franklin. There they open some of the first Unitarian Churches in and around Philadelphia. In the years that followed, the situation in England became more relaxed. In 1802, Priestly's old congregation opened a chapel, and Bilsham, a leading Unitarian, was invited to preach the opening sermon. Priestly however, was content to remain in America where he died in 1804.
The Unitarian movement in England had a profound effect in America. It started as an off-shoot of Calvinism, but by the seventeenth century, the different foundations gradually changed into religious covenants and there was not so much emphasis placed on dogma. Thus the way was opened for gradual theological change. Charles Chauncy (1705-1757), of Boston, gave a definite direction to the establishment of belief in the Divine Unity, Under James Freeman (1759-1825), the congregation of King's chapel purged their Anglican Liturgy of all reference to the doctrine of Trinity. This took place in 1785. Thus, the first Unitarian Church came into existence in the New World. The doctrine of Priestly were openly printed and freely distributed. They were received by the majority of the people. The result was that Unitarianism was accepted by all the ministers in Boston except one.
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reference
Memoirs of Dr. Priestly, J. Priestly
Memoirs of Dr. Priestly, J. Priestly, p.76
Memoirs of Dr. Priestly, J. Priestly, p.89
from the Book : Jesus - A prophet of Islam
Author : Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
(ICRA)