History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion

Disputes about reason and religious authority shape Adam Storey Farrar's account of challenges to Christian belief. Published in 1863, the book presents eight Bampton lectures preached at Oxford. Their subjects extend from early opposition to Christianity through the Middle Ages and Renaissance to English deism and later developments in Germany and England. Farrar writes from a Christian theological position, seeking the intellectual causes of doubt and the conditions that give it different forms in different ages.

The preface defines the inquiry around scepticism and unbelief, connecting freedom from authority with questions about revelation. A later discussion examines Coleridge's understanding of reason and inspiration, comparing his ideas with German philosophy and ancient Neo-Platonic thought. Notes and an index accompany the lectures. For readers studying religious history, the book offers both an account of changing arguments and a scholar's attempt to explain how thought, faith and historical circumstances influence one another.