Бенджамин Уичкот – английский философ, которого принято считать основателем школы кембриджских платоников.

Родился в 1609 году в Стоке, графство Шропшир. В 1626 году поступил в Эммануэль Колледж в Кембридже. В 1629 году получил степень бакалавра свободных искусств, а через четыре года – магистра свободных искусств. В 1634 году становится тьютором в своем Колледже, а через два года посвящен в духовный сан и назначен воскресным лектором Церкви Святой Троицы в Кембридже. Эту должность Уичкот занимает на протяжении двадцати лет. Он ставит целью своих лекций обратить людей к нравственным и духовным вопросам христианской религии. В 1649 году Бенджамин Уичкот становится доктором богословия.

В 1650 году Уичкот избран заместителем ректора Кембриджского университета. Однако в 1660 году во время Реставрации его смещают с должности. Уичкот перебирается в Лондон и становится священником, где вскоре прославился своим красноречием и добрым отношением к бедным прихожанам. О его философских взглядах мы можем судить по проповедям и изречениям, изданным уже после смерти автора. Уичкот считал проповеди наилучшим методом воздействия на слушателя и способом изложения своих воззрений. Умер Бенджамин Уичкот в 1683 году.

Среди опубликованных проповедей можно назвать: «Third Earl of Shaftesbury» (Лондон, 1689) («Избранные проповеди с предисловием третьего графа Шефтесбери»); «Избранные рассуждения», 4 тома (опубликованы Дж. Джеффери (J. Jeffery), Лондон, 1701); «Проповеди Бенжамина Уичкота», 4 тома (опубликованы Уильямом Уишартом (William Wishart), Эдинбург, 1742); «Работы ученого Бенжамина Уичкота, доктора. . .», 4 тома (Абердин, 1751).

Бенджамин Уичкот был противником доктрины абсолютной греховности и занимал полупелагиансткую позицию, утверждая, что человек есть «дитя разума», а следовательно его природа не может быть, как заверяют пуритане, абсолютно греховной. В то же время, Уичкот придерживался того мнения, что некоторые проблемы теологии не могут быть разрешены человеческим разумом, и поэтому он отстаивал необходимость религиозной терпимости.

А. О. Родионовская

Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683)was a British Establishment and Puritan divine, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and leader of the Cambridge Platonists.

He was born in Stoke upon Tern in Shropshire. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1628.[1] In 1637, he was ordained, a deacon and priest at the same time. In 1643, he married and took up priestly duties in a Cambridge-dispensed church in North Cadbury, Somerset. In 1644, he became Provost of King's College due to Parliamentary control of the universities; however, he was the only new head of house who did not subscribe to the National Covenant. In 1650, during the Interregnum, he advised Oliver Cromwell on the subject of toleration of Jews. Upon the Restoration, he was removed from his position at King's College, but he was reinstated when he accepted the Act of Uniformity in 1662. From that time to 1666 (when it burned), he was the curate of St. Anne's Church, Blackfriars. In 1668, he was made the vicar of St Lawrence Jewry. He was brother to Jeremy Whichcote.[citation needed] He was one of the leaders of the Cambridge Platonists, and had liberal views. In 1650, he was involved in a controversy with his former teacher and friend Anthony Tuckney. He was opposed to the doctrine of total depravity and adopted a semi-Pelagian position, holding that man is the "child of reason" and therefore not, as the Puritans held, of a completely depraved nature. He argued that there are some questions that are beyond the ability of reasonable and religious people to solve, and therefore he argued for religious toleration. He was accused at various times by various persons of being an Arminian, Socinian, and Latitudinarian.

Nearly all of his works had been published posthumously, and include: Select Notions of B. Whichcote (1685), Select Sermons (1689), Discourses (1701), and Moral and Religious Aphorisms (1703).

Библиография

• Tillotson, John. A Sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Benjamin Whichcot, DD, and Minister of S. Lawrence Jewry, London, May 24th 1683. (London, 1683)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, qeologoumhna dogmata: or Some Select Notions of that Learned and Reverend Divine of the Church of England, Benj. Whitchcot, D.D. (London, 1685)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, A compendium of devotion, containing a treatise of prayer and thanksgiving: with morning and evening prayers for every day in the week, &c. Also a sermon of drawing nigh to God, by the late Reverend B. Whitchcot, D.D (London,1697)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, Select Sermons, with a Preface by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1698; 2nd edn, London, 1721)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, Several Discourses… by B.W., ed. John Jeffrey, 4 vols (London, 1701-7)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, Moral and Religious Aphorisms, ed. J. Jeffrey (London, 1703). Enlarged edition by S. Salter (1753). Ed. W.R. Inge (1930).
• Whichcote, Benjamin, Eight Letters of Dr Antony Tuckney and Dr Benjamin Whichcote. Published with Aphorisms.
• Whichcote, Benjamin, The True Notion of Peace in the Kingdom of Church of Christ (London, 1717)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, Twelve Sermons, 2nd edn, with a Preface by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1721)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, The Sermons of Benjamin Whichcote, ed. William Wishart. 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1742)
• Whichcote, Benjamin, The Works of the Learned B.W., 4 vols (Aberdeen, 1751, reprinted New York 1977).
• Worthington, John. The Diary and Correspondence of John Worthington, ed. J. Crossley and R.C. Christie. Manchester, Chetham Society Remains vols 13, 36 and 114 (1847, 1855, 1886). Selections
• Patrides, C.A. (ed.), The Cambridge Platonists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969)
• Taliaferro, Charles, and Alison Teply (eds), Cambridge Platonist Spirituality (New York, Mahwah NJ: Paulist Press, 2004).
• Secondary Sources
• Beiser, Frederick, The Sovereignty of Reason (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996)
• Gill, Michael B., ‘The Religious Rationalism of Benjamin Whichcote’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 37, 2 (1999), pp. 271-300.
• Greene, R.A., ‘Whichcote, the Candle of the Lord and Synderesis’, Journal of the History of Ideas (1991), pp. 617-44.
• Herndon, Sarah, ‘Benjamin Whichcote, Cambridge Platonist’, Florida State University Studies, 11 (1953), pp. 99-116.
• Roberts, J.D., From Puritanism to Platonism in Seventeenth-Century England. The Hague, 1968.
• Westcott, B.F. ‘Benjamin Whichcot’ in A. Barry, Masters in English Theology (London, 1877)
• de Pauley, W.C., The Candle of the Lord (London, 1937)
• Schneewind, J.B., The Invention of Autonomy (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 196-9

ТЕКСТЫ

◊ The Works of the Learned Benjamin Whichcote, Rector of St. Lawrence Jewry, London. Vol. 1. 1751

Discourse I — The Shortness of Human Charity

Discourse II — The Persection of the Mercy of God

Discourse III — The Disference of Times with respect to religion

Discourse IV — The Joy which the righteous have in God

Discourse V, VI, VII — The secret Blasting of Men

Discourse VIII — Preached before the Hon. the House of Commons, February 4, 1673

Discourse IX — The danger of Unfaithfulness to God

Discourse X — The Malignity of Popery

Discourse XI — The Deceitfulness of sin

Discourse XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI — The Conversion of a Sinner

Discourse XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX — The true Valuation of Man

Discourse XXI — The Necessary Repentance of a Sinner

Discourse XXII, XXIII — The Exercise and Progress of a Christian

Discourse XXIV — The Practice ot those who are improved

◊ The Works of the Learned Benjamin Whichcote, Rector of St. Lawrence Jewry, London. Vol. 2. 1751

◊ The Works of the Learned Benjamin Whichcote, Rector of St. Lawrence Jewry, London. Vol. 4. 1751

Discourse LXXI, LXXII, LXXIII — Whatsoever things are just

Discourse LXXIV — Whatsoever things are holy

Discourse LXXV — Whatsoever things are lovely

Discourse LXXVI — Whatsoever things are of good report

Discourse LXXVII — If there be any virtue

Discourse LXXVIII — If there be any praise

Discourse LXXIX — Think on these things

Discourse LXXX — The importance ot forgiveness of sin, and its certainty to the penitent

Discourse LXXXI — The great benefits that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in. pur nature

Discourse LXXXII — The obligations and advantages of good will

Discourse LXXXIII — The excellence of a meek and quiet spirit

Discourse LXXXIV — The effect, intent, and issue of religion

Discourse LXXXV, LXXXVI, LXXXVII — Men have nothing to glory of, but religion

Discourse LXXXVIII, LXXXIX, XC — God hateth wickedness

Discourse XCI — The great matters of religion

Discourse XCII, XCIII, XCIV, XCV, XCVI, XCVII — The great instances of wickedness

◊ Moral and Religious Aphorisms Wherein are Contained Many Doctrines of Truth and Rules of Practice, which are of Universal Concernment and of the greatest Importance in the Life of Man. Collected from the Manuscript Papers of the Reverend and Learned Doctor Benjamin Whichcote. To which are added eight letters which passed between Dr. Whichcote and Dr. Tuckney. L., 1754

◊ The Cambridge Platonists. Being selections from the writings of Benjamin Whichcote, John Smith and Nathanael Culverwel with introduction by E. T. Campagnac, M.A. Oxf., 1901

The Glorious Evidence and Power of Divine Truth

The Venerable Nature, and Transcendant Benefit of Christian Religion

The Work of Reason

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

◊ Select Sermons of Dr. Whichcote

◊ Бенджамин Уичкот. О соотношении веры и разума/Пер. и комм. А. В.  Диденко// AKAΔHMEIA. Материалы и исследования по истории платонизма.Вып. 6. СПб., 2005 г. C. 451–461

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

Davenport P. M. Moral divinity with a tincture of Christ? An interpretation of the theology of Benjamin Whichcote, founder of Cambridge platonism. 1972

Gill Michael B.The Religious Rationalism of Benjamin Whichcote// Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 37, N 2, April 1999, pp. 271–300

Jones R. M. Benjamin Whichcote, the first of the <latitude-men»// Jones R. M. Spiritual reformers in the 16th & 17th centuries. L.,1914. P. 288–305 

Roberts J. D. The rational theology of Benjamin Whichcote: father of the cambridge platonists. A dissertation presented to the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree Doctor of philosophy. 1957

Ссылки

Hutton S. Benjamin Whichcote статья на сайте Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Whichcote Society