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Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again
1874 · 450 pages
Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again
by Joseph Barker
Joseph Barker was a prominent secularist editor and lecturer who worked alongside the leading freethinkers of his day on both sides of the Atlantic before returning to Christianity. Subtitled "A Life Story," this is his own account of the whole arc — what drew him into unbelief, what he found there, and what finally brought him back.
The changed life
A former preacher who became one of the most active secularist lecturers of his generation, Barker passed through years of organized unbelief before returning to the Christian faith he had campaigned against.
Summary
Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again (1874) is Joseph Barker's firsthand account of a life that carried him from the pulpit into organized unbelief and out the other side. Its subtitle, "A Life Story," is exact: rather than a systematic treatise, the book narrates the stages of his own doubt and return.
Barker knew the secularist movement from the inside. He had edited freethinking journals and lectured widely, working alongside prominent freethinkers in Britain and the United States, and he writes with the candor of a man describing terrain he once mapped for others. He recounts what drew him toward skepticism, what he actually found when he lived by it, and the considerations that eventually turned him back toward Christianity.
The result is both a personal memoir and a considered reckoning with unbelief written by someone who had championed it. For readers drawn to accounts of doubt honestly confronted, Barker's narrative is a substantial nineteenth-century example, told in his own voice.
Who was Joseph Barker?
Joseph Barker (1806–1875) was an English preacher, editor, and lecturer whose religious course was among the most eventful of his century. He began in Methodism, moved through a series of positions, and for a time became a leading figure in the secularist and freethought movements, editing journals and lecturing on both sides of the Atlantic in company with well-known freethinkers.
He later returned to Christianity and turned his platform skills to its defense. Barker left more than one autobiographical work; Modern Skepticism is his account focused on the arc of doubt and return, and it is complemented by the fuller life story published after his death.
Common questions
- Who was Joseph Barker?
- He was a nineteenth-century English preacher, editor, and lecturer who moved from Methodism through the secularist and freethought movements — working with leading freethinkers in Britain and America — before returning to Christianity.
- What is Modern Skepticism about?
- Subtitled "A Life Story," it is Barker's own account of his journey into organized unbelief and back to Christian faith: what drew him toward skepticism, what he found in it, and what brought him back.
A note on the text. Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Againis in the public domain. What you're buying is our edition — the careful typesetting and design. The original text is also available free here.