In 1713 Anthony Collins publishes A Discourse of Free-Thinking, occasioned by the rise and growth of a sect called free-thinkers. Collins defends the right to inquire into every doctrine, prophecy included, and the word freethinker becomes the movement's common name in English.
Tagged: Deism
The Event
- Date
- 1713 (exact)
- Era
- The Deist Controversy; Standard periodization of deist history
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Deism
- Streams
- Deism
- Key figures
- Anthony Collins
- Key texts
- A Discourse of Free-Thinking
Primary Sources
- Collins, Anthony. A Discourse of Free-Thinking. London, 1713.
Secondary Sources
- Barnett, S. J. The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
- Byrne, Peter. Natural Religion and the Nature of Religion: The Legacy of Deism. London: Routledge, 1989.
- Walters, Kerry S. The American Deists: Voices of Reason and Dissent in the Early Republic. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Provenance: HIST-1362; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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