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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._W._Benn
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.41772/page/n5
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.41773/page/n5
"From the point of view here adopted, religious belief is identified with theological dogma. In the present state of thought, rationalism means the hostile criticism of such belif ; and i have not affected to conceal the direction in which my personal sympathies lie." (p.VIII)
"At the same time, although myself a rationalist, i wish to guard against the notion that this work is intended as a contribution to the controversial literature of rationalism. It would neither surprise nor annoy me to hear that the religious convictions of no single reader had been changed by its perusal. But i own that it would be disappointing to hear that i had thrown no fresh light on the evolution of opinions as such. And if i am not liable to that charge, if i have made the courses of thought a little more intelligible, then my book ought to interest serious students of history, whatever their opinions may happen to be. However dogmatic their beliefs, i trust that they will not be deterred from reading it merely because they find the opposite view stated with unequivocal decision in its pages." (p.IX)
p.1.
-Alfred William Benn, The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, volume 1, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1906, 450 pages.
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.41772/page/n5
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.41773/page/n5
"From the point of view here adopted, religious belief is identified with theological dogma. In the present state of thought, rationalism means the hostile criticism of such belif ; and i have not affected to conceal the direction in which my personal sympathies lie." (p.VIII)
"At the same time, although myself a rationalist, i wish to guard against the notion that this work is intended as a contribution to the controversial literature of rationalism. It would neither surprise nor annoy me to hear that the religious convictions of no single reader had been changed by its perusal. But i own that it would be disappointing to hear that i had thrown no fresh light on the evolution of opinions as such. And if i am not liable to that charge, if i have made the courses of thought a little more intelligible, then my book ought to interest serious students of history, whatever their opinions may happen to be. However dogmatic their beliefs, i trust that they will not be deterred from reading it merely because they find the opposite view stated with unequivocal decision in its pages." (p.IX)
p.1.
-Alfred William Benn, The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, volume 1, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1906, 450 pages.
