6 Historical Perspectives in the Mind of Joseph Priestley

Abstract This chapter examines Priestley's different perspectives as a historian. The discussion is divided into three parts: the first is concerned with Joseph Priestley the historian, the second with Priestley the theologian as historian and Biblical critic, and the third with the importance of his legacy in this latter respect. A brief comparison is made between Priestley's approach to the relationship between religion and history and that of David Hume and Edward Gibbon, two great historians of the 18th century. Two works by Priestley are analyzed: Lectures on History and General Policy, delivered at Warrington Academy in the late 1760s and revised and finally published in 1788, which deals with his secular approach to history; and An History of the Corruptions of Christianity, published six years earlier, in 1782. The latter reveals a different approach to historical understanding within a theological context.