The Oracle of Reason

The Oracle of Reason, or Philosophy Vindicated was the first avowedly atheistic periodical to be published in Britain. It was founded by Charles Southwell, William Chilton and John Field in 1841, and lasted until 1843. Several of its editors were imprisoned for blasphemy.

The first issue of the weekly Oracle was published on 6 November 1841 (price: 1d), and the last issue was dated 2 December 1843 [2]. It was published 6 November 1841 to 8 January 1842, then there was a gap before publication was resumed from 12 February 1842 to 2 December 1843. According to Royle (1974, p. 74), it was "at first highly successful, selling on average about four thousand copies a week."

The first editor of the Oracle was Charles Southwell. George Jacob Holyoake took over when Southwell was imprisoned, and when Holyoake was imprisoned Thomas Paterson became editor. When Paterson was gaoled, William Chilton took over.

The fourth issue of the Oracle included a deliberately provocative article antisemitically entitled "The Jew Book", which described the Bible as "This revoltingly odious Jew production..." As a consequence, Charles Southwell was arrested for blasphemy on 27 November 1841 and imprisoned for twelve months in January 1842. George Jacob Holyoake, the Owenite lecturer for Sheffield, defended Southwell in December 1841, in a lecture entitled "The spirit of Bonner in the Disciples of Jesus", for which he was rebuked by the Owenite central board. Nevertheless, Holyoake took over the editorship of the Oracle from number eight (dated 12 February 1842) (According to Royle, Chilton edited number five but, preferring to remain in the background, delayed the next issue after Southwell's imprisonment until a new editor was found ), moving the editorial office from Bristol to Sheffield, and changing publisher to Henry Hetherington.

Holyoake's approach was more moderate than Southwell's, advocating a compromise for the Owenite movement whereby socialism and religion would be separated by setting up separate discussion classes on theological subjects. However, on 24 May 1842, Holyoake delivered a lecture on Home Colonisation in Cheltenham, during which he answered a question from the audience (it was asked by local preacher) about God's place in a socialist community:

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