Henry Dodwell (25 November 1706 – 1784) was a British religious controversialist and lawyer. Dodwell was the son of the theologian

Henry Dodwell Henry Dodwell (October 16417 June 1711) was an Anglo-Irish scholar, theologian and controversial writer. Life Dodwell was born in Dublin in 1641. His father, William Dodwell, who lost his property in Connacht during the Irish rebellion, was ...

. He was born in Shottesbrooke, Berkshire, and educated at

Magdalen Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

. He was awarded a BA in 1726 and then studied Law, becoming a barrister in 1738.James A. Herrick, ‘Dodwell, Henry (1706–1784)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 He is mainly known as the author of ''Christianity Not Founded on Argument'' (1741), which, while it ostensibly argued for a fideist position - it suggested that reason could not be the foundation of Christian faith - was actually a satire on

William Law William Law (16869 April 1761) was a Church of England priest who lost his position at Emmanuel College, Cambridge when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, King George I. P ...

's ''The Case of Reason'' (1731). Many pious Christians took the work at face value, and it was recommended to John Wesley, who however noted that the book was in fact intended to show that Christianity was not reasonable: "the great design uniformly pursued throughout the work was to render the whole of the Christian institution both odious and contemptible." Although the book was published anonymously, it was well known that Dodwell was the author. The book prompted a variety of responses from critics of its thesis, including

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, play ...

(''The Reasonableness of the Christian Religion as Delivered in the Scriptures'', 1743), John Leland (''Remarks on a Late Pamphlet, Entitled, ‘Christianity not Founded on Argument’'', 1744), Thomas Randolph (''The Christian Faith a Rational Assent'', 1744) and Dodwell's brother William Dodwell. Dodwell died in 1784.

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dodwell, Henry 1706 births 1784 deaths 18th-century Anglican theologians