|
Archibald Horace Mann Robertson〔Some sources erroneously give his second name as "Harold"〕 (1886–14 October 1961) was an English civil servant who became a writer on history, social affairs from a left-wing perspective and critiques of Christianity. ==Early Years== Robertson was born in Durham in 1886,〔(BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE in ''Jesus: Myth or History'' )〕 eldest of the three sons of the similarly named Archibald Robertson and his wife Julia, née Mann.〔(Hatfield College History: Principals & Masters )〕 The father was an Anglican clergyman and the master of Hatfield College, Durham,〔(Oxford Index: Archibald Robertson )〕 who later became Principal of King's College, London and then Bishop of Exeter. In 1899 Robertson won a scholarship to Winchester College, where it was that he began to doubt the Christian and Tory orthodoxies which were expected of him. This process started with his reading of the history of the French Revolution. Further spurs to his thinking came from Shelley's ''Queen Mab'' with its "devastating notes", J. W. Draper's ''History of the Conflict between Religion and Science'' and, most of all, Belfort Bax's ''The Ethics of Socialism''.〔 From school he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford,〔 where he was in due course awarded a first-class degree in Greats.〔 Meanwhile he continued his political interest. The 1906 Generral Election, a landslide victory for the Liberals and the first substantial representation for the Labour Party, took place shortly after he started at Oxford.〔 He avidly read left-wing periodicals such as ''The Clarion'', ''Labour Leader'', ''The New Age'' and ''Justice'', the weekly newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation.〔 He became a regular contributor to at least the last of these, (using the style ''A. H. M. Robertson''〔(''Justice'' contents )〕) In 1910, having graduated, he entered the British Civil Service〔 and at the outbreak of the war in 1914 he was working as private secretary to the Permanent Secretary of the British Admiralty.〔(Navy List November 1914 )〕 His position exempted him from active service, but he agonised, as did many on the left, about the morality of the conflict. Eventually he decided to support the war, on grounds which he much later described as "casuistry".〔 He left the ILP and the Fabians but continued to contribute to rationalist and socialist publications, and wrote books. At this period he published using the pseudonym ''Robert Arch,''〔 partly to avoid confusion with his father, who was writing on topics in church history, and also to lower his profile with respect to his employers in the Admiralty. In 1919 he met his old hero Belfort Bax,〔 and after the latter's death in 1926 Robertson wrote a pamphlet of appreciation. Bax had introduced him to the Rationalist Press Association (RPA), which Robertson joined in 1920. In 1925 became a member of its Board of Directors. He took an active part in the decision to launch the Thinker's Library in 1929, and it was he who suggested that name for the series. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Archibald Robertson (atheist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|