James Martineau

James Martineau (1805-1900) was a Unitarian minister originally from Norwich. He was part of a vibrant group of Unitarians living there during the last quarter of the 18th and first half of the nineteenth century. Thomas Madge (1786-1870), one of HCR’s favorite Unitarian ministers, was at the Octagon Chapel (originally built by the Presbyterian minister Dr. John Taylor) for many years and was a close friend of the Martineau family. Harriet Martineau, his sister, had been in Bristol and attended the ministry of Lant Carpenter. She returned to Norwich and suggested James study at Bristol under Carpenter, and he did (this was c. 1819-21). In 1822 he entered Manchester College (then at York) to train for the Unitarian ministry, studying under Charles Wellbeloved (1769-1858), John Kenrick (1788-1877), and William Turner (1788-1853). In 1827 Martineau returned to Bristol to assume teaching duties at Carpenter’s school, which he did for one year. Here he participated in a private philosophical society (which included Foster), which would prepare him for his later work with the famous Metaphysical Society. He also heard Robert Hall on Thursday evenings at Broadmead, whose style of preaching he imitated somewhat. Martineau went to Dublin in 1828 as assistant minister to Joseph Hutton (1765-1856) at Eustace Street Presbyterian church. Here he published A Collection of Hymns for Christian Worship (1831), some 273 hymns, five by his sister Harriet, but he drew from a wide spectrum of hymn writers, including some by Watts and Bishop Heber. Between 1823 and 1857 Martineau served as minister of Paradise Street Chapel, Liverpool, forming friendships there J. H. Thom (1808-1894), Charles Wicksteed (1810-85), John James Tayler (1797-1869), and Joseph Blanco White (1775-1841). The Rationale of Religious Inquiry appeared in 1836, where he argues that religious truth must not be contrary to reason, though it can go beyond what reason can prove without being unreasonable; Martineau was applying critical methods to scripture at the same time that he wanted a religion based on feeling and devotion (not unlike HCR). Many thought his critical approach too liberal and conservative groups attacked him for it, causing considerable controversy in 1839 during a series of lectures by various evangelical Anglican clergy in Liverpool. Manchester College came back that year from York. Martineau responded to these ministers in five lectures. “His lectures show that he had abandoned the idea of revelation as a body of truth, the authenticity of which was assured by miracles, and had replaced it by the view that revelation had to be received by the individual soul, and that its appeal was not to external authorities but to the conscience and the affections. Miracles were still important, but they were performed not to guarantee truth, which could be verified internally, but as a compassionate act of Christ in response to human need” (ODNB). Martineau was also rejecting philosophical necessity, one of Priestley’s foundational doctrines. He studied in Berlin in 1848 and was a student of German theology and writings thereafter. In 1851 he had a break with his sister, Harriet, whose contributions in Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development  (with Henry George Atkinson) was vehemently refuted by James in the Prospective Review as atheistical.  In 1853 is was decided to move Manchester College to London, with Martineau still providing teaching but commuting from Liverpool to do so. In 1857 he was appointed full-time tutor, with John James Tayler as principal. In 1858 he became joint minister at Little Portland Chapel, and that same year his son became lecturer in Hebrew there. In 1862 Martineau countered Herbert Spencer’s atheistical position espoused in his First Principles, apologizing for theism. In 1866 Martineau sought the position of Chair of Philosophy at University College, but was rejected by those who wanted either no religious person or only an Anglican, causing Augustus de Morgan to resign as mathematics chair. Instead, Martineau became Principal at Manchester College in 1869, continuing to launch assaults against atheism and materialism, the latter espoused then by John Tyndall.  Tyndall and the Darwinists drew Martineau’s contempt for arguing that matter was self-sufficient and for confining religion to only the emotional realm of human nature. Even the orthodox found a champion in Martineau in his debate in 1872 with Tyndall. Martineau retired in 1885 from Manchester College, but continued writing. His devotional writing is some of his best work. His important works include A Collection of Hymns for Christian Worship (1831), The Rationale of Religious Inquiry (1836), Hymns for the Christian Church and Home (1840), Endeavours after the Christian Life (1843) (popular among Anglicans like F. W. Robertson), Hours of Thought on Sacred Things (1876–9), A Study of Religion (1888), The Seat of Authority in Religion (1890), Essays, Reviews and Addresses (1890–91), Home Prayers (1892), and Types of Ethical Theory (1895).