Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel

Joseph Butler (1692-1752) was an English bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher. In 1714, Butler decided to enter the Church of England, and went to Oriel College, Oxford. After holding various other preferments, he became rector of the rich living of Stanhope. In 1736 he was made the head chaplain of King George II's wife Caroline, on the advice of Lancelot Blackburne. In 1738 he was appointed bishop of Bristol. He is said to have declined an offer to become the archbishop of Canterbury in 1747. He became Bishop of Durham in 1750. He is most famous for his Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (1726) and Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed (1736). The Analogy is an important work of Christian apologetics in the history of the controversies over Deism. His sermons on human nature are commonly studied as an answer to Hobbes' philosophy of ethical egoism. These two books are considered by his proponents to be among the most powerful and original contributions to ethics, apologetics and theology which have ever been made.