Joseph Priestley: Theologian and Scientist

JoAnn Macdonald

Delivered on June 28, 2009
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County


What do we know about Joseph Priestley, the theologian and the scientist? I confess I knew very little about him, other than his name is given to the district in which our Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County (UUFHC) is a member, and then under the umbrella of the greater Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. While visiting the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland, Pennsylvania last July, Edward Roberts and I met the author of this book: Joseph Priestley and English Unitarianism in America (2007), J.D. Bowers. It is an awesome piece of research.

A "synchronicity" meeting for us, Professor Bowers was in his hometown to do a radio interview from a nearby town the day we were there. Northumberland is a small, quaint Pennsylvania town. Visiting the Joseph Priestley House further inspired me to learn about this man from England who brought his version of Unitarianism to America. That move was by chance, too. He was burned out of his house in London because of his dissidence to the Anglican Church. If the word theocracy is familiar, England was one at that time. Anywhere, in any theocracy, if you are a dissident to the state religion, you are against the government be it king, ayatollah or president. Priestley was called a heretic.

Let's begin at the time of the dissidence. Priestley was first a minister and then later a scientist. In his day, scientists were also known as natural philosophers. In his autobiography and by the many biographers who have recorded his life, when discussing his religion, his science and his political views, he is referred to as a theologian who incorporated scientific studies and somehow became a political theorist. In reading these accounts it is easy to see how he became such an interested person in many areas of study.

As a minister he believed in Jesus as a Christian; however, not as a part of a triune God or as the one and only divine son of God. In 1782 his History of the Corruptions of Christianity was published. It was a compilation of the magic and mysticism he challenged in the New Testament; for example, the existence of the Holy Ghost, the false mysticisms of the Eucharist as he saw it, the immateriality of the soul, and the Last Supper. He traced the distortions back to the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., around the time of the Council of Nicaea. You may recall that the Council of Nicaea met under the leadership of Pope Constantine. You may also recall that these Councils determined Jesus' divinity and created the Trinity. Priestley disavowed all of it. He made many enemies among Protestants and Catholics in England.

Christianity in America at the time of our nation's revolution was mostly Protestant with Catholics scattered in various colonies. Maryland was one of those prominent Catholic colonies, as we know St. Mary's City in St. Mary's County is the evidence for that. The various Protestant denominations viewed Jesus in few differing ways. So when Priestley disavowed the Catholic view of transubstantiation plus the many supernatural accounts the Protestants accepted, he was definitely set apart by all of these other clergymen.

There were several other factors which alienated Priestley from his countrymen. One is this: Even though the industrial innovations and creations England experienced and benefited from through scientists like Priestley, the political system hadn't changed since the 1300's. Scientists had no representative in the Parliament yet were creating much wealth and technological supremacy for the government and other individuals. Most of the scientists were religious dissenters as well. They saw in Priestley a man who could fight for reform for the factories in the political arena at the same time improving the steam engines and ironworks. However, the fact that he was a dissenter to the established religion did allow for his enemies to build up propaganda so that the mobs were easily incited to riot.

The age of Enlightenment played an intricate part in his philosophy of reason and rational thinking. It is understandable that the undereducated classes would misunderstand him. In Steven Johnson's book The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution and the Birth of America (2008), the author discusses the relationship between then Vice President John Adams and Priestley during the campaign of 1796. When Priestley and his family arrived in Philadelphia in 1794, the two men became friends as a consequence to Priestley preaching in the Universalist Church on Lombard Street. Adams "reported back to his wife Abigail that the sermons—titled "Discourses on the Evidences of Divine Revelation"—were `learned, ingenious and useful'. But even Adams became more cautious in endorsing such a controversial figure."

As Johnson continues in his recounting of history, Adams distanced himself from Priestley and it is attributed to "a case of political pragmatism: Priestley was probably the most controversial figure of the age and Adams was running for president. It was one thing to be a follower of a great champion of the American cause, but it was quite another to throw your lot in with a minister who considered half of modern Christianity to be a bunch of Pagan hocus-pocus. Here again Priestley lies at the origin point of another venerable—if not altogether meritorious—American tradition: aspiring politicians distancing themselves from their controversial religious advisers during the campaign season."

I saw a parallel with Priestley being ostracized by his countrymen for his radical views and Jesus being ostracized by his fellow Jews for his teachings, which were perceived to be radical in his time. Both believed in their own destiny. However, I am not certain Priestley was aware of what was to be his destiny. From all accounts he was an open and honest person. He shared all of his thoughts regularly, with many men, which, as I said earlier, was to his and his family's detriment when the mobs rioted and burned his house and laboratory to the ground. Mobs get out of hand when no one thinks rationally.

Priestley cultivated scientific friendships in the American colonies with Benjamin Franklin and in France with Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. Later Thomas Jefferson became a close friend; so close that Priestley discussed Jesus with Jefferson and so became one of the prompts for Jefferson cutting and pasting his own bible-the one we refer to as The Jefferson Bible, with no virgin birth, no supernatural accounts, and no miracles.

Priestley is well-known for the experiments with air in discovering what allows plants to grow within a glass container, but animals die if put within a glass container for a particular length of time. This is how he came to discover oxygen in 1774 and later, carbon dioxide. The carbonation process we know today was developed from his experiments with bubbling air. I stirred a glass with tonic water in it the other day and added some lime juice ... it fizzed. I said aloud, "Thank you, Joseph Priestley!"

So in the years of dissent, most notably in 1794 when he arrived in America, what was happening to Priestley? In America he was a respected professional, a minister and a scientist. As John Ruskin Clark wrote in his book Joseph Priestley, A Comet in the System,

"... I ... found a ... reading from his 1768 [piece] An Essay on the First Principles of Government that was influential in the political theory for the American and French Revolutions, and the reform of the British government, as I later learned. He ardently defended civil and religious liberty: complete freedom of thought and expression were essential to ascertaining truth in all fields of endeavor. He was liberal in politics as well as in religion-except for his expectation of the early establishment of the kingdom of God on earth."

This last part of the sentence I just read, "... his expectation of the early establishment of the kingdom of God on earth", that is the strange part, isn't it? That is a curious statement that many Unitarians find conflicting. Priestley held firm that God was to be believed. He read the Book of Revelations and seemed to accept that those prophecies would happen. He wasn't ready to not believe in God.

When he and his family escaped to America he was welcomed by the Philadelphia Unitarians. The University of Pennsylvania offered him a teaching position in Philadelphia. He declined in favor of his wife Mary's choice to live far out in the country-on the frontier-in Northumberland on eleven acres. She did not like living in cities. However, this was not a good choice for Joseph. He was frustrated often with the lack of postal service. It took a week to a month to get a letter or parcel to or from Philadelphia because there was no coach service. Communication with England took an entire season! We are so fortunate with our e-mails and cell phones, aren't we?

There is much information on the differences between English Unitarians and the Unitarians in New England, notably in Massachusetts. These are important differences because they involve the history of Unitarianism as known by the names Aryans and Socinians. J.D. Bowers went to great lengths to explain it in his book. Suffice it to say that each group thought they were correct and thereby had published their differences. The Trinitarians took advantage of the situation whenever and wherever they could, exploiting the differences and using them to their advantage. Priestley could not influence very many residents in the Northumberland town and the farmers in the surrounding areas to come and listen to his quite different religious views. When he died, the small group that met with him as liberal religious thinkers—Unitarians, although not officially a denomination yet in America—disbanded.

From Johnson again: "A few days before his death, Priestley sent a letter to a friend with one last request. "Tell Mr. Jefferson ... that I think myself happy to have lived so long under his excellent administration; and that I have the prospect of dying in it. It is, I am confident, the best on the face of the earth, and yet I hope to rise to some thing more excellent."

Joseph Priestley was buried in a Quaker cemetery in Northumberland with many eulogies and tributes to follow as the news of his demise slowly spread around the world.

Joseph Priestley and the District

Our JPD, as the Joseph Priestley District of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations is known-we love to shorten groups of words or phrases to acronyms, don't we? So you will hear me alternately use "JPD" or "the District"—Our JPD is one of twenty districts and UUFHC is one of 1,041 congregations in the United States, Canada and overseas. As background information, the UUA is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of District Trustees selected by the various districts and at-large Trustees, who are elected by the delegates to the General Assembly. The General Assembly is the annual business meeting of the denomination, held in various parts of the continent. The Board of Trustees meets four times each year, three times in Boston and once at the General Assembly.

Speaking of the General Assembly, we have two of our members, Glenn and Kit Brown, as delegates to the GA at this very moment. This is the year that the General Assembly elects a new President of the UUA. We have a new president this morning, having been elected last evening in Salt Lake City: Peter Morales. Rev. Morales will be installed in a ceremony today which will conclude the General Assembly. Glenn and Kit will give their General Assembly report to us here on October 4th, Association Sunday.

At the district level, JP includes 67 congregations within five states: eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia. This is a very large district in land area. As I spoke about earlier, Northumberland, Pennsylvania is located nearly at the center of the district.

The program Chalice Lighters is under the auspices of the District. This program is of vital importance to the continued growth of Unitarian Universalists congregations in the district. Upon application for a grant the JPD Growth Committee meets quarterly to review the applications from congregations and awards up to $20,000 over a period of years to help meet a congregation's various needs: a minister, a director of religious education, a music director, and/or to build their church building. UUFHC was the first congregation to receive a grant, in 1987, and has received three additional awards since then. Another program, Chalice Keepers, is the endowment fund. We will be reporting on the progress of both of these programs periodically.

Also, the Denominational Affairs Committee is being revived at UUFHC. Glenn Rogers and I invite you to be a part of this committee. It will be informative. It is our plan to keep this congregation up-to-date on what is happening around the JPD and the UUA. You will have access to the people who work for you at the district level and receive advance notices of conferences and workshops that will assist our congregation in spreading the word of liberal religious thinking via Unitarian Universalism. In the hall with the coat rack there is a bulletin board wall which backs up to the Library. Please watch that space for news from the JPD and the Denominational Affairs Committee.

For the benefit of visitors this morning, we encourage you to read all about us. We maintain an open and transparent congregation with an Executive Board of Trustees who answer to our membership, not to JPD or the UUA. There is no hierarchy of control; simply a cooperative attitude between all affiliates with mutual support. There are pamphlets in the foyer and our website information to review.

In closing, I like to think Joseph Priestley would be humbled and feel honored to have his name attached to this district. He loved the United States of America and had supported the American Revolution from his home in England. Steven Johnson says it so well: "He was the first great scientist-exile to seek safe harbor in America after being persecuted for his religious and political beliefs at home. Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, Xiao Qiang—they would all follow in Priestley's footsteps."

Amen.

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