John Hutchinson (1674 – 28 August 1737) was an
English theologian and
natural philosopher.
He was born at
Spennithorne,
Yorkshire, and served as steward in several families of position, latterly in that of the Duke of Somerset, who ultimately obtained for him the post of riding purveyor to the master of the horse, a sinecure worth about £200 a year. In 1700 he became acquainted with
Dr. John Woodward (1665–1728), physician to the duke and author of a work entitled ''The Natural History of the Earth'', to whom he entrusted a large number of fossils of his own collecting, along with a mass of manuscript notes, for arrangement and publication.
A misunderstanding as to the manner in which these should be dealt with was the immediate occasion of the publication by Hutchinson in 1724 of ''Moses's Principia'', part i., in which Woodward's ''Natural History'' was bitterly ridiculed, his conduct with regard to the mineralogical specimens not obscurely characterized, and a refutation of the
Newtonian doctrine of
gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
seriously attempted. It was followed by part ii. in 1727, and by various other works, including ''Moses's Sine Principio'', 1730; ''The Confusion of Tongues and Trinity of the Gentiles'', 1731; ''Power Essential and Mechanical, or what power belongs to God and what to his creatures, in which the design of
Sir Isaac Newton and Dr
Samuel Clarke is laid open'', 1732; ''Glory or Gravity'', 1733; ''The Religion of Satan, or Antichrist Delineated'', 1736.
He taught that the
Bible contained the elements not only of true religion but also of all rational philosophy. He held that the
Hebrew must be read without points, and his interpretation rested largely on fanciful
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
ism.
Bishop George Horne of Norwich was during some of his earlier years an avowed Hutchinsonian; and
William Jones of Nayland continued to be so to the end of his life.
A complete edition of his publications, edited by
Robert Spearman and
Julius Bate, appeared in 1748 (12 vols.); an ''Abstract'' of these followed in 1753; and a ''Supplement'', with ''Life'' by Spearman prefixed, in 1765.
Notes
References
*
* John C. English, "John Hutchinson's Critique of Newtonian Heterodoxy", ''Church History'' 68 (1999) pp. 581–597
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, John
1674 births
1737 deaths
English theologians
English male non-fiction writers
17th-century Anglican theologians
18th-century Anglican theologians