"His edition of St. Paul's Epistles made him an arch-heretic in the eyes of the High Church party, and his simultaneous appointment to the Greek Professorship gave the chance, of which its members were foolish enough to avail themselves, of putting him in the position of a martyr of free thought. His share in the Essays and Reviews (1860) made him a representative man in a wider sphere. Though we have now got to the stage of affecting astonishment at the sensation produced by the avowal of admitted truths in that work, nobody who remembers the time can doubt that it marked the appearance of a very important development of religious and philosophical thought. The controversy raised by Essays and Reviews even distracted men for a time from the far more important issues raised by the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Essayists from EnglandTranslators from EnglandTheologians from EnglandAnglicans from the United KingdomPeople from London
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Leslie Stephen, Studies of a Biographer, Vol. II (1898), p. 129
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Jowett
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Benjamin Jowett
Benjamin Jowett (15 April 1817 – 1 October 1893) was a theologian and classical scholar who became one of the great public figures of Victorian England. He was Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford from 1855, Master of Balliol College, Oxford from 1870, and Vice-Chancellor of the university from 1882.
25 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Benjamin Jowett →
Related Quotes
"I have been very fortunate in this latter respect (Greek and Latin Composition), having got for my tutor the very bes…"
"Research! Research! A mere excuse for idleness; it has never achieved, and will never achieve any results of the slig…"
"We have sought truth, and sometimes perhaps found it. But have we had any fun?"
"Learn just enough of the subject [metaphysics] to enable your mind to get rid of it."
"Doubt comes in at the window, when Inquiry is denied at the door."
"[The office of the interpreter] is to read Scripture like any other book."
"Nowhere probably is there more true feeling, and nowhere worse taste, than in a churchyard (p. 244)."
"I hope our young men will not grow into such dodgers as these old men are. I believe everything that a young man says…"
"One man is as good as another until he has written a book."
"First come I. My name is J–W–TT. There's no knowledge but I know it. I am the Master of this College, What I don't kn…"