Description

First published in 1736, Joseph Butler’s The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature is one of the most influential works of English theology and philosophy of religion. Against the deists of his age, Butler argues that the difficulties raised against revealed religion have exact parallels in the observable order of nature, so that a reasonable person who accepts the one has no consistent ground for rejecting the other. His method of cumulative probability shaped moral philosophy and apologetics for well over a century, and was read closely by Hume, Newman and Gladstone.

This is a faithful print-on-demand facsimile of the edition published in New York by Dayton & Saxton in 1841, reproduced in full from a library copy. That edition gathers, alongside Butler’s text, the introductory essay by Albert Barnes, the Life of Dr. Butler by Andrew Kippis, and the preface by Bishop Samuel Hallifax. The historical text is reproduced without modification; only the format, margins and legibility have been reset for modern printing.