John Toland

John Toland , 1670-1722, British deist, b. Ireland. Brought up a Roman Catholic, Toland became a Protestant at 16. He studied at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leiden and after 1694 lived at Oxford for several years. In 1696 he published Christianity not Mysterious, in which he tried to reconcile the scriptural claims of Christianity with the epistemology of John Locke . He asserted that neither God nor his revelation is above the comprehension of human reason. The book was widely attacked, and it was burned in Ireland in 1697. Toland's next work (1698) was a biography of John Milton, which also caused a scandal; it contained a passage that was believed to cast doubt on the authenticity of the New Testament. His Anglia Libera (1701), in support of the Act of Settlement (see Settlement, Act of ), brought him favor from the court of Hanover, where he was received by the Electress Sophia. To her daughter, Sophia Charlotte, he addressed his Letters to Serena (1704), in which he argues that motion is an intrinsic quality of matter, thus repudiating the Cartesian conception. In his Pantheisticon (1720) he develops the pantheistic ideas implicit in the Letters. He is believed to have been the first to use the term pantheism.

Toland, John (1670–1722), philosopher, a protégé of Molesworth. Born into a Gaelic Irish family in Co. Donegal, he converted to Presbyterianism but later became the period's most notorious critic of religious orthodoxy. Christianity not Mysterious (1696) was burnt by order of the Irish parliament and Toland was obliged to flee the kingdom. He was also interested in Gaelic antiquities, and was probably the author of an anonymous pamphlet against the Declaratory Act.

Toland, John (1670–1722), Deistical writer. In Christianity not Mysterious (1696) he asserts that neither God Himself nor His revelation is above the comprehension of human reason, and he attributes the mysteries of Christianity to the intrusion of pagan conceptions and the machinations of priestcraft. The book aroused great indignation. Further scandal was caused by a passage in his Life of Milton (1698), which was believed to cast doubt upon the authenticity of the NT; in his reply Toland said that he was referring to the apocryphal writings. Though not an original thinker, Toland was influential.