Thomas Burnet
Thomas Burnet | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1635 Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire, England |
Died | 27 September 1715 (aged c. 80) |
Nationality | English |
Occupation | theologian |
Thomas Burnet (c. 1635? – 27 September 1715[1][2]) was an English theologian and writer on cosmogony.
Life
He was born at
Burnet took employment travelling with
After the
Works
Sacred Theory of the Earth
Burnet's best known work is his
Burnet's system had its novel features, as well as those such as the
Isaac Newton was an admirer of Burnet's theological approach to geological processes. Newton even wrote to Burnet, suggesting the possibility that when God created the Earth, the days were longer.[8] However, Burnet did not find this explanation scientific enough. Lengthening the days would require an intervention on God's part. Burnet tightly held the belief that God created the world and all its processes perfectly from the start. He wrote:
We think him a better Artist that makes a Clock that strikes regularly at every hour from the Springs and Wheels which he puts into the work, than he that hath so made his Clock that he must put his finger to it every hour to make it strike.[9]
1719 copy of "The Sacred Theory of the Earth" Title page of a 1719 copy of "The Sacred Theory of the Earth" First page of a 1719 copy of "The Sacred Theory of the Earth"
The Ancient Doctrine Concerning the Origin of Things
Some of the views expressed in this work, also known as Archaeologiae Philosophicae sive Doctrina Antiqua de Rerum Originibus (1692), were so unacceptable to contemporary theologians that he had to resign his post at Court. In this he considered whether the fall of man was a symbolic event rather than literal history.
On the State of the Dead and of the Resurrection
Burnet's treatise De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium was published posthumously in 1720.[10] In Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire III p. 99 Gibbon made reference to Burnet's De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium noting that Burnet "exposes the inconveniences which must arise", if souls "possess a more active and sensible existence". Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St. Paul's, criticised Gibbon and claimed that Burnet's views were exactly the opposite.[11]
Influence
Burnet's work had an influence on Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He is quoted at the beginning of the 1817 edition of his The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
The ridge Dorsa Burnet in the Ocean of Storms on the Moon was named after him.
See also
- Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, a book by Stephen Jay Gould that reassesses Burnet's work
Notes and references
- Julian Calendar.
- ^ Westfall, Richard S. "Burnet, Thomas". Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The Galileo Project.
- ^ ISBN 1-86123-103-2.
- ^ "Burnet, Thomas (BNT651T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c Dictionary of National Biography, Burnet, Thomas (1635?–1715), master of the Charterhouse, by Leslie Stephen. Published 1886.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4067. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Richard Henry Popkin, Isaac La Peyrère (1596–1676): his life, work, and influence (1987), p. 52; Google Books.
- ^ Isaac Newton, letter to Thomas Burnet, 24 December 1680, in Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Thomas Constable, 1855), 2:453-54
- ^ Burnet 1697, p. 72
- ^ John Martin, A bibliographical catalogue of books privately printed 1 p. 24 1834: "Dr. Thomas Burnet had written a treatise, De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium, of which he had a few copies printed for the use of himself and his friends. One of these, after the author's death, happened to fall into Dr. Mead's hands ..."
- ^ The gentleman's magazine, and historical chronicle, 87 "The following remarks were written by Bp. Newton at the age of 78 : "Some books were published in 1781, which employed some of the Bishop's leisure hours in his rural retreat and during his illness. Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and fall ... Mr. Gibbon has the following note: "Burnet De statu mortuorum (56–84) collects the opinions of the fathers, as far as they assert the sleep or repose of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterward exposes (pp. 91, &c.) the inconveniences which must arise, if they possessed a more1 active and sensible existence. Who would not from hence infer that Dr. B. was an advocate for the sleep or and insensible existence of the soul after death? Whereas his doctrine is directly the contrary. He has employed some chapters in treating of the state of human souls in the interval between death and the resurrection; and after various proofs from reason, from scripture, and the Fathers, his conclusions are, that human souls exist after their separation from the body, that they are in a good or evil state according to their good or ill behaviour, but that neither their happiness nor their misery will be complete and perfect before the day of judgment."
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie (1886). "Burnet, Thomas (1635?–1715)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 07. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
External links
- Telluris Theoria Sacra (Latin, 1681) - digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library
- Theory of the Earth, vols. 1 and 2 (English, 1684–1690) - digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library
- Burnet, Thomas (1697). The Sacred Theory of the Earth (third ed.). London: Walter Kettilby.