Susanna Newcome (; 1685–1763) was an English philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. She was born in the village of

Durnford, Wiltshire Durnford is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, between Salisbury and Amesbury. It lies in the Woodford Valley and is bounded to the west by the Salisbury Avon and to the east by the A345 Salisbury-Amesbury road. The parish church and Little ...

, where her father was the vicar. She spent most of her adult life in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

with her husband John Newcome, a professor and university administrator at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

. Her most notable work is ''An Enquiry into the Evidence of the Christian Religion'', first published in 1728. In the ''Enquiry'', she offers a

Cosmological argument A cosmological argument, in natural theology, is an argument which claims that the existence of God can be inferred from facts concerning causation, explanation, change, motion, contingency, dependency, or finitude with respect to the universe o ...

for the existence of God, in particular in defence of the

Christian religion Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popul ...

. Her life and significance to Christian apologetics has been explored in a biography, ''No Apologies'' (2020), by Sarah R. Enterline. Her philosophical work can arguably be seen as an early example of

Utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...

, as defended by Patrick Connolly.

References

English Christian theologians 18th-century English theologians 1685 births 1763 deaths People from Wiltshire {{Christian-theologian-stub