Re: Devil's Advocate, small footnote.

[Bruce Callen <bcallen@lib.drury.edu>]

My understanding (from Westfall's _The Life of Isaac Newton_) is that 
Newton was an Arian. Arianism is a long-standing heresy, which not only 
denies the existence of the Trinity, but also the full divinity of Christ. 
Newton wrote long treatises for himself on this (and other) theological 
subjects. He found a number of sympathetic individuals, including Locke, 
but kept his beliefs quite private, since heresy was not considered 
acceptable in those with either University or Royal appointments.

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Bruce Callen		email: bcallen@lib.drury.edu
Physics Department	phone: (417) 873-7473
Drury College		fax:   (417) 873-7432
Springfield, MO 65802

On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, Donald E. Simanek wrote:

> On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, Dewey Dykstra, Jr. wrote:
>
> > (1) Actually Newton's religious views might more correctly be characterized
> > as Unitarian.  This may make a difference to some, but not to the point
> > being argued in the paragraph.
>
> Dewey,
>
> I said this once, and someone who seemed to know what he was talking about
> corrected me, saying that Newton was a "Unarian", not a "Unitarian". I
> know pretty much what a Unitarian is, and found the reference to "Unarian"
> in one biography of Newton, but have not dug into the doctrinal
> differences between the two.
>
> 	-- Donald