Transcribed from the [1873] Austin and Co. edition by DavidPrice.
CHRISTIANITY
IN RELATION TO
FREETHOUGHT, SCEPTICISM, AND
FAITH:
THREEDISCOURSES
BY THE BISHOP OFPETERBOROUGH.
WITH
SPECIALREPLIES
BY MR. CHARLESBRADLAUGH.
LONDON:
Austin & Co., 17, Johnson’sCourt, Fleet Street, E.C.
PRICE ONESHILLING.
p.iiiADVERTISEMENT.
It will be seen by the followingCircular and Correspondence how the Discourses of the Bishop ofPeterborough and Mr. Bradlaugh’s Replies thereto werebrought about. The Dean’s Circular speaks of fourDiscourses to be delivered by the Bishop, but in fact only thethree here reported were given. This volume, therefore,contains the whole of both sides of the question, so far as thediscussion has hitherto proceeded in Norwich. The speecheswere all taken down by a competent shorthand reporter, speciallyengaged for the National Reformer.
The reader will clearly see by the Correspondence that theChristians refused the proposal of the Secularists that the twoparties should co-operate in publishing together and circulatingas widely as possible the Discourses and Replies. Mr.Bradlaugh has therefore taken upon himself the responsibility oftheir joint publication. The extraordinary reasons given bythe Dean (in the last paragraph of his letter of Feb. 15th) forrefusing the perfectly fair offer of Mr. Cooper, will not passunnoted. His claim to certainty may differ from theclaim to infallibility made on behalf of the Pope and the RomishChurch, and the principle on which he condemns the disseminationof Sceptical works as treason to human welfare, may differfrom that which in Rome has led to the establishment of theIndex Expurgatorius; but we confess that in neither casecan we see the difference, and we challenge the Dean to show thatthere really is any.
We are confident that Freethinkers generally will appreciatethe disinterested zeal of Mr. R. A. Cooper in making allarrangements necessary to ensure that the Bishop’sDiscourses should be fitly answered on the spot and withoutdelay.
THE PUBLISHERS.
April, 1871.
p.ivCIRCULAR OF THE DEAN OF NORWICH.
Sir,—I am about to ask yourkind help in an enterprise undertaken for the religious welfareof our fellow-citizens, to the success of which your co-operationmay very materially contribute. It has been thought that inlarge cities, where sceptical views are often so muchdisseminated, and spread so widely among all classes, good mightbe done, under God’s blessing, by an annual series ofdiscourses from some competent preacher, directed against modernforms of infidelity, and afterwards published and circulated atso low a price as should put them within the reach of all. It is chiefly with the view of holding such discourses there,that the Dean and Chapter have recently caused the Nave of theCathedral Church to be lighted and furnished with chairs, allof which (except, a very few reserved for persons engaged inthe service, o