Socinians, John Toland, and the Anglican Rationalists

Abstract

The late seventeenth century in England is, theologically, a critical period, a time when old forms of thought and traditional methodologies were being challenged. Two theological events of the 1690s stand out as true signs of the changing times: the appearance of a number of collections of Socinian tracts, in which, in fact, the term “Unitarian” is first used in English literature. Also, in 1696, John Toland published his short but challenging Christianity Not Mysterious . In the following essay, I an interested in showing the methodological similarities and discontinuities between the Socinians and Toland, especially in regard to their scriptural interpretation and mutual insistence on the inadmissability of the concept of mystery to Christian theology.