w:J. M. Robertson

{{Short description|Scottish journalist and rationalist (1856–1933)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = John Mackinnon Robertson

| image = J. M. Robertson 1909.png

|birth_date = 14 November 1856

|birth_place = Brodick, Isle of Arran, Scotland

|death_date = 5 January 1933 (aged 76)

|death_place = {{Nowrap|London, England}}

| occupation = Journalist, politician, rationalist, writer}}

John Mackinnon Robertson {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|PC}} (14 November 1856Page, Martin. (1984) Britain's Unknown Genius An Introduction to the Life-Work of John Mackinnon Robertson. London: South Place Ethical Society, p. 13. {{ISBN|0902368109}} – 5 January 1933{{sfn|Wells|1987|p=26}}) was a prolific Scottish journalist, advocate of rationalism and secularism, and Liberal Member of Parliament for Tyneside from 1906 to 1918.

Robertson was best known as an advocate of the Christ myth theory.

Biography

Robertson was born in Brodick on the Isle of Arran; his father moved the family to Stirling while he was still young, and he attended school there until the age of 13. He worked first as a clerk and then as a journalist, eventually becoming assistant editor of the Edinburgh Evening News.{{cite web|title =The Rt. Hon. J. M. Robertson |url =http://www.workerseducation.org/crutch/others/movements/robertsonbio.html | access-date =13 February 2010}}

He wrote in February 1906 to a friend that he "gave up the 'divine'" when he was a teenager.{{sfn|Wells|1987|page=13}} His first contact with the freethought movement was a lecture by Charles Bradlaugh in Edinburgh in 1878. Robertson became active in the Edinburgh Secular Society,{{cite web|title=Edinburgh Secular Society|url=http://edinburghsecularsociety.com/about/|work=About us|access-date=2 October 2013}} soon after.{{sfn|Wells|1987|page=13}} It was through the Edinburgh Secular Society that he met William Archer and became writer for the Edinburgh Evening News.{{sfn|Wells|1987|page=13}} He eventually moved to London to become assistant editor of Bradlaugh's paper National Reformer, subsequently taking over as editor on Bradlaugh's death in 1891. The National Reformer finally closed in 1893. Robertson was also an appointed lecturer for the freethinking South Place Ethical Society{{cite web |title =Progress Through Two Centuries: A Short History of the South Place Ethical Society |url =http://www.ethicalsoc.org.uk/history.htm |access-date =13 February 2010 |url-status =dead |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20000118230842/http://www.ethicalsoc.org.uk/history.htm |archive-date =18 January 2000 |df =dmy-all }} from 1899 until the 1920s.

An advocate of the "New Liberalism,"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XWGuS25msYC&q=duncan+tanner+new+liberal+ministers+junior&pg=PA45|title=Political Change and the Labour Party 1900–1918|first=Duncan|last=Tanner|date=13 February 2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521530538|access-date=11 March 2017|via=Google Books}} Robertson's political radicalism developed in the 1880s and 1890s, and he first stood for Parliament in 1895, failing to win Bradlaugh's old Northampton seat as an independent radical liberal. In the 1906 General Election he was successful as the official Liberal candidate at Tynemouth. Robertson was a staunch free trader and his Trade and Tariffs (1908) "became a bible for free-traders pursuing the case for cheap food and the expansion of trade".Michael Freeden, '[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35783 Robertson, John Mackinnon (1856–1933)]', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 5 April 2009.

In 1915 he was appointed to the Privy Council.

At the 1918 United Kingdom general election, as a Liberal candidate he contested Wallsend, a constituency based largely on his Tyneside seat, but finished third. He contested the 1923 United Kingdom general election as Liberal candidate for Hendon without success.

Robertson died in London in 1933.

Homer Smith has described Robertson as an "outstanding exponent of rationalism and one of the foremost scholars produced in England in the last six decades."Smith, Homer W. (1952). Man and His Gods. Little, Brown and Company. p. 477

Electoral record

{{Election box begin|title=General election 1895: Northampton (2 seats)British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, FWS CraigDebrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=Henry Labouchère

|votes=4,884

|percentage=27.0

|change=-4.1

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate=Adolphus Drucker

|votes=3,820

|percentage=21.0

|change=+2.5

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal-Labour (UK)

|candidate=Edward Harford

|votes=3,703

|percentage=20.4

|change=-9.1

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate=Jacob Jacobs

|votes=3,394

|percentage=18.7

|change=-2.2

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Social Democratic Federation

|candidate=Frederick George Jones

|votes=1,216

|percentage=6.7

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Independent Liberal

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=1,131

|percentage=6.2

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=117

|percentage=0.6

|change=

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=83.5

|change=+2.3

}}

{{Election box hold with party link|

|winner=Liberal Party (UK)

|swing=

}}

{{Election box gain with party link|

|winner=Conservative Party (UK)

|loser=Liberal Party (UK)

|swing=

}}

File:John_Mackinnon_Robertson.jpg

{{Election box begin|title=General election 1906: Tyneside

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=11,496

|percentage=62.5

|change=+11.2

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate=James Knott

|votes=6,885

|percentage=37.5

|change=-11.2

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=4,611

|percentage=25.0

|change=+22.4

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=79.3

|change=+4.4

}}

{{Election box gain with party link|

|winner=Liberal Party (UK)

|loser=Liberal Unionist Party

|swing=+11.2

}}

{{Election box begin|

|title=General election January 1910: TynesideDebrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=13,158

|percentage=62.8

|change=+0.3

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate=Alfred Cochrane

|votes=7,807

|percentage=37.2

|change=-0.3

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=5,351

|percentage=25.6

|change=+0.6

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=81.5

|change=+2.2

}}

{{Election box hold with party link|

|winner=Liberal Party (UK)

|swing=+0.3

}}

{{Election box begin|

|title=General election December 1910: Tyneside

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=11,693

|percentage=63.0

|change=+0.2

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Conservative Party (UK)

|candidate=Helenus Macaulay Robertson

|votes=6,857

|percentage=37.0

|change=-0.2

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=4,836

|percentage=26.0

|change=+0.4

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=72.1

|change=-9.4

}}

{{Election box hold with party link|

|winner=Liberal Party (UK)

|swing=+0.2

}}

File:1920 John Mackinnon Robertson.jpg

{{Election box begin|

|title=General election 1918: WallsendBritish Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=National Democratic and Labour Party

|candidate=Matt Simm

|votes=10,246

|percentage=

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Labour Party (UK)

|candidate=John Chapman

|votes=6,835

|percentage=

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=3,047

|percentage=

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=3,411

|percentage=

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=

|change=n/a

}}

{{Election box win

|winner=National Democratic and Labour Party

|swing=n/a

}}

{{Election box begin|

|title=General election 1923: Hendon

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Unionist Party (UK)

|candidate=Philip Lloyd-Graeme

|votes=13,278

|percentage=51.9

|change=-10.9

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Liberal Party (UK)

|candidate=John Mackinnon Robertson

|votes=7,324

|percentage=28.6

|change=+8.2

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party=Labour Party (UK)

|candidate=Charles Latham

|votes=5,005

|percentage=19.5

|change=+2.7

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes=5,954

|percentage=23.3

|change=-3.5

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes=

|percentage=67.3

|change=

}}

{{Election box hold with party link|

|winner=Unionist Party (UK)

|swing=-9.6

}}

Political views

Economically, Robertson has been described as an underconsumptionist, and he gave an early form, perhaps the earliest formal statement, of the paradox of thrift in his 1892 book The Fallacy of Saving.{{cite book

|first=John M.

|last=Robertson

|author-link=J. M. Robertson

|title=The Fallacy of Saving

|year=1892

|url=https://archive.org/stream/fallacyofsavings00robe/fallacyofsavings00robe_djvu.txt

}}{{cite journal

|title=A Neglected Early Statement the Paradox of Thrift

|first1=Robert T.

|last1=Nash

|first2=William P.

|last2=Gramm

|journal=History of Political Economy

|year=1969

|volume=1

|issue=2

|pages=395–400

|url=http://hope.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/1/2/395

|doi=10.1215/00182702-1-2-395

|url-access=subscription

}} He was in favour of the payment of MPs, the Abolition of the House of Lords and the establishment of Adult Suffrage, including giving votes to women.Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1907

Christ myth theory

Robertson was an advocate of the Christ myth theory, and in several books he argued that Jesus was not a historical person, but was an invention by a first-century Jewish messianic cult of Joshua, whom he identifies as a solar deity.{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2000|pp=11–12}}{{sfnp|Wells|1987|pp=162–163}} In Robertson's view, religious groups invent new gods to fit the needs of the society of the time.{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2000|pp=11–12}} Robertson argued that a solar deity symbolized by the lamb and the ram had long been worshiped by an Israelite cult of Joshua and that this cult had then invented a new messianic figure, Jesus of Nazareth.{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2000|pp=11–12}}{{sfnp|Robertson|1900|p=34}}{{sfnp|Robertson|1902|p=72}} Robertson argued that a possible source for the Christian myth may have been the Talmudic story of the executed Jesus Pandera which dates to 100 BC.{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2000|pp=11–12}}{{sfnp|Robertson|1902|pp=6–12, 14–15}} He wrote that possible origins were: a would-be messiah who preached "a political doctrine subversive of the Roman rule, and to have thereby met his death";{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=John M.|title=The Historical Jesus, a survey of positions|year=1916|publisher=Watts & Co|location=London|page=56|chapter=VI: The Visionary Evangel|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historicaljesuss00robe/page/56/mode/2up}} and a "Galilean faith-healer with a local reputation [who] may have been slain as a human sacrifice at some time of social tumult".Robertson, Archibald (1946) Jesus: Myth Or History pg 44

Robertson considered the letters of Paul the earliest surviving Christian writings, but viewed them as primarily concerned with theology and morality, rather than historical details:

{{quote|The older portions of the Pauline epistles show no knowledge of any Jesuine biography or any Jesuine teaching —a circumstance which suggests that the Jesus of Paul is much more remote from Paul's day than is admitted by the records.{{sfn|Robertson|1902|p=13}}}}

Robertson viewed references to the twelve apostles and the institution of the Eucharist as stories that must have developed later among gentile believers who were converted by Jewish evangelists like Paul.{{sfnp|Van Voorst|2000|pp=11–12}}{{sfnp|Robertson|1902|p=18}}{{sfnp|Wells|1987|p=149}}

Oxford theologian and orientalist Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare wrote a book titled, The Historical Christ; or, An investigation of the views of Mr. J. M. Robertson, Dr. A. Drews, and Prof. W. B. Smith (1913), directed against the Christ myth theory defended by the three authors.

Selected works

[https://archive.org/details/modernhumanistss00roberich Modern Humanists] (1891)
The Fallacy of Saving – A Study in Economics (1892)
[https://archive.org/details/miscellanies00robeuoft Miscellanies] (1898)
History of Freethought in the Nineteenth Century, (1899)
{{cite book

|title=Christianity and Mythology

|year=1900

|publisher=Watts

|url=https://archive.org/details/christianitymyth00robe}} (1900)

[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003201461 Studies in Religious Fallacy] (1900)
{{cite book

|title=A Short History of Christianity

|year=1902

|publisher=Watts & Co.

|url=https://archive.org/details/ashorthistorych00robegoog}} (1902)

{{cite book

|title=Pagan Christs – Studies in Comparative Hierology

|orig-year=1903|year=1911

|publisher=Watts & Co.

|url = https://archive.org/details/paganchristsstu00assogoog}}

{{cite book

|title=Letters on Reasoning

|year=1902

|publisher=Watts

|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersonreason00robegoog

}} (1905, 2nd edition)

A Short History of Freethought: Ancient and Modern [https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryoffr01robeiala Volume 1], [https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryoffr02robeiala Volume 2] (1906)
[https://archive.org/details/rationalism00robeuoft Rationalism] (1912)
[https://archive.org/details/cu31924070375104 The Baconian Heresy: A Confutation (1913)]
[https://archive.org/details/historicaljesuss00robe The Historical Jesus: A Survey of Positions (1916)]
[https://archive.org/details/cu31924029296147 The Jesus Problem: Restatement of the Myth Theory (1917)]
[https://archive.org/details/cu31924013154178 Shakespeare and Chapman (1917)]
Short History of Morals (1920)
[https://books.google.com/books?id=KT_OAAAAMAAJ Explorations] (1923)
[https://archive.org/details/shakespearecapt100robeuoft The Shakespeare Canon (1922–1932)]
Jesus and Judas (1927)
[https://archive.org/details/shorthistorychristianityrobertson A Short History of Christianity] (third edition, 1931)

References

Sources

{{cite book|author-link=John M. Robertson |last=Robertson |first=John M. |title=Christianity And Mythology |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.351620 |location=London |publisher=Watts & Co. |year=1900}} (Reprinted (2004) Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing {{ISBN|0766187683}})
{{cite book|author-link=John M. Robertson |last=Robertson |first=John M. |title=A Short History of Christianity |url=https://archive.org/details/ashorthistorych00robegoog |location=London |publisher=Watts & Co. |year=1902}} (Reprinted (2004) Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing {{ISBN|0766189090}})
{{cite book|last=Van Voorst|first=Robert E.|author-link=Robert E. Van Voorst|title=Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence|date=2000|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-4368-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwzliMSRGGkC}}
{{cite book|last=Wells|first=G. A.|author-link=George Albert Wells|title=J.M. Robertson (1856-1933): liberal, rationalist, and scholar |year=1987 |publisher=Pemberton |isbn=978-0-30187-002-1}}