MARTINEAU, James, English Unitarian clergyman and philosopher: b. Norwich, 21 April 1805; d. London, 11 Jan. 1900. His father, Thomas Martineau, the great-grandson of a Huguenot surgeon who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was a manufacturer of bombazines. Harriet Marti neau (q.v.) was an elder sister. He was sent to Derby in 1821 to study civil engineering, but in the following year became a student of Manchester College. In 1827 he took charge for a year of Dr. Lant Carpenter's school in Bristol, and in 1828 he accepted a call to the copastorship of Eustace Street Presbyterian Church, Dublin. In 1831 he published 'Hymns for Christian Worship,' and next year resigned his pastorate, but shortly afterward accepted the copastorate of Paradise Street Chapel, Liverpool, of which, in 1835, he became sole pastor. In 1836 appeared his first separate original work, 'The Rationale of Religious Inquiry,' which attracted considerable atten tion. In 1839 he was associated with J. H. Thom and Henry Giles in the defense of Unitarianism against attacks by orthodox clergy men, and of 13 addresses published in 'Uni tarianism Defended' (1839), five were by Martineau. In 1840 he published his collection of 'Hymns for the Christian Church and Home,' and in the same year was appointed professor of mental and moral philosophy and of political economy in his old college, now named Manchester New College. On the removal of the college to London in 1853 he retained his professorship, but did not settle in London till 1857. In 1848-49 he spent 15 months on the Continent, mostly in Germany, during which his philosophical opinions were profoundly influenced by the study of Greek and German philosophy under Trendelenburg. The remaining publications of his first Liver pool period are an essay on 'The Five Points of Christian Faith' (1841), and the well known collection of sermons entitled 'En deavors after the Christian Life' (1843-47). During the period 1849-57, when he was pastor of Hope Street Church, Liverpool, he published many articles in reviews, among them that on 'Mesmeric Atheism,' which finally completed his sister Harriet's estrangement from him. In 1859, being now in London, he and J. J. Taylor, principal of Manchester New College, were chosen joint ministers of Little Portland Street Chapel, but from 1860 till his resignation in 1872 Martineau alone supplied the pulpit. On Taylor's death in 1869 he became principal of the college, a post which he held till his resignation in 1::5. In 1866 he was a candi
date for the chair of logic and mental philosophy in University College, London, but the united opposition of orthodoxy and secularism led by George Grotte man aged to defeat him by a single vote. His publications include 'Studies of Christianity' (1869), a volume of sermons; 'Why Dissent?' (1871) ; 'Hymns of Praise and Prayer' (1873); 'Modern Materialism: Its Attitude towards Theology' (1876), a masterly attack on Tyndall and the scientific materialists; 'Essays, Theo logical and Philosophical' (1875) ' 'Hours of Thought on Sacred Things' (1876-80) 'Ideal Substitutes for God Considered' (1880), a criticism of Moral Idealism; 'A Study of Spinoza' (1883), his first great philosophical work; and 'Types of Ethical Theory> (1::5), the earlier of his two masterpieces. During the remaining years of his life he published his great defense of the essential principles of religion entitled 'A Study of Religion: Its Source and Contents' (1888) ; and his freely critical 'Seat of Authority in Religion' (1890). The first academical degree conferred upon him was that of LL.D. by Harvard in 1872, but he received later the degrees of S.T.D. from Leyden (1875), D.D. from Edinburgh (1884), D.C.L. from Oxford (1888), and Litt.D. from Dublin (1892). Martineau was one of the most eminent preachers of his time, but his greatest work was done in the fields of ethics and philosophical theology. At first a necessarian and utilitarian, he was latterly the great modern champion of free-will and in tuitionalism. In the development of his Chris tology from a sort of Arianism to complete Humanitarianism, and in his ever-increasing insistence upon the continuity of revelation and the purely internal character of ultimate reli gious authority, he sums up more than any other the history of Unitarianism, and indeed of liberal theology generally during the 19th century. He was a powerful and eloquent champion of Theism against scientific agnos ticism and materialism. All his works are written in a uniquely rhythmic style, character ized by a profuse and happy use of figurative language. Consult Jackson, 'James Martineau: A Biography and a Study' (1900); Sidgwick. 'Lectures on the Ethics of Green, Spencer and Martineau' (1902) Drummond, 'Life and Letters of James Martineau' and Upton, 'A Survey of Philosophical Work' (1902).