John Mackinnon Robertson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 14 November 1856 Brodick,Isle of Arran, Scotland |
| Died | 5 January 1933 (aged 76) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist,politician, rationalist, writer |
John Mackinnon RobertsonPC (14 November 1856[1] – 5 January 1933[2]) was a prolific Scottish journalist, advocate ofrationalism andsecularism, andLiberal Member of Parliament forTyneside from 1906 to 1918.
Robertson was best known as an advocate of theChrist myth theory.
Robertson was born inBrodick on theIsle of Arran; his father moved the family toStirling 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 theEdinburgh Evening News.[3]
He wrote in February 1906 to a friend that he "gave up the 'divine'" when he was a teenager.[4] His first contact with thefreethought movement was a lecture byCharles Bradlaugh inEdinburgh in 1878. Robertson became active in theEdinburgh Secular Society,[5] soon after.[4] It was through the Edinburgh Secular Society that he metWilliam Archer and became writer for theEdinburgh Evening News.[4] He eventually moved to London to become assistant editor of Bradlaugh's paperNational Reformer, subsequently taking over as editor on Bradlaugh's death in 1891.[3] TheNational Reformer finally closed in 1893. Robertson was also an appointed lecturer for the freethinkingSouth Place Ethical Society[6] from 1899 until the 1920s.
An advocate of the "New Liberalism,"[7] Robertson's political radicalism developed in the 1880s and 1890s, and he first stood forParliament in 1895, failing to win Bradlaugh's oldNorthampton seat as an independentradical liberal. In the1906 General Election he was successful as the official Liberal candidate atTynemouth. Robertson was a staunchfree trader and hisTrade and Tariffs (1908) "became a bible for free-traders pursuing the case for cheap food and the expansion of trade".[8]
In 1915 he was appointed to thePrivy Council.
At the1918 United Kingdom general election, as a Liberal candidate he contestedWallsend, a constituency based largely on hisTyneside seat, but finished third. He contested the1923 United Kingdom general election as Liberal candidate forHendon without success.
Robertson died in London in 1933.[3]
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."[9]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Henry Labouchère | 4,884 | 27.0 | −4.1 | |
| Conservative | Adolphus Drucker | 3,820 | 21.0 | +2.5 | |
| Lib-Lab | Edward Harford | 3,703 | 20.4 | −9.1 | |
| Conservative | Jacob Jacobs | 3,394 | 18.7 | −2.2 | |
| Social Democratic Federation | Frederick George Jones | 1,216 | 6.7 | n/a | |
| Independent Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 1,131 | 6.2 | n/a | |
| Majority | 117 | 0.6 | |||
| Turnout | 83.5 | +2.3 | |||
| Liberalhold | Swing | ||||
| Conservativegain fromLiberal | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 11,496 | 62.5 | +11.2 | |
| Conservative | James Knott | 6,885 | 37.5 | −11.2 | |
| Majority | 4,611 | 25.0 | +22.4 | ||
| Turnout | 79.3 | +4.4 | |||
| Liberalgain fromLiberal Unionist | Swing | +11.2 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 13,158 | 62.8 | +0.3 | |
| Conservative | Alfred Cochrane | 7,807 | 37.2 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 5,351 | 25.6 | +0.6 | ||
| Turnout | 81.5 | +2.2 | |||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +0.3 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 11,693 | 63.0 | +0.2 | |
| Conservative | Helenus Macaulay Robertson | 6,857 | 37.0 | −0.2 | |
| Majority | 4,836 | 26.0 | +0.4 | ||
| Turnout | 72.1 | −9.4 | |||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +0.2 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Democratic | Matt Simm | 10,246 | n/a | ||
| Labour | John Chapman | 6,835 | n/a | ||
| Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 3,047 | n/a | ||
| Majority | 3,411 | n/a | |||
| Turnout | n/a | ||||
| National Democraticwin | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unionist | Philip Lloyd-Graeme | 13,278 | 51.9 | −10.9 | |
| Liberal | John Mackinnon Robertson | 7,324 | 28.6 | +8.2 | |
| Labour | Charles Latham | 5,005 | 19.5 | +2.7 | |
| Majority | 5,954 | 23.3 | −3.5 | ||
| Turnout | 67.3 | ||||
| Unionisthold | Swing | -9.6 | |||
Economically, Robertson has been described as anunderconsumptionist, and he gave an early form, perhaps the earliest formal statement, of theparadox of thrift in his 1892 bookThe Fallacy of Saving.[14][15] He was in favour of the payment of MPs, the Abolition of the House of Lords and the establishment ofAdult Suffrage, including giving votes to women.[16]
Robertson was an advocate of theChrist myth theory, and in several books he argued thatJesus was not ahistorical person, but was an invention by a first-century Jewish messianic cult ofJoshua, whom he identifies as asolar deity.[17][18] In Robertson's view, religious groups invent new gods to fit the needs of the society of the time.[17] 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.[17][19][20] Robertson argued that a possible source for the Christian myth may have been the Talmudic story of the executedJesus Pandera which dates to 100 BC.[17][21] He wrote that possible origins were: a would-bemessiah who preached "a political doctrine subversive of the Roman rule, and to have thereby met his death";[22] and a "Galilean faith-healer with a local reputation [who] may have been slain as a human sacrifice at some time of social tumult".[23]
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:
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.[24]
Robertson viewed references to the twelve apostles and the institution of theEucharist as stories that must have developed later among gentile believers who were converted by Jewish evangelists like Paul.[17][25][26]
Oxford theologian and orientalistFrederick Cornwallis Conybeare wrote a book titled,The Historical Christ; or, An investigation of the views of Mr. J. M. Robertson,Dr. A. Drews, andProf. W. B. Smith (1913), directed against the Christ myth theory defended by the three authors.
Works by or aboutJ. M. Robertson atWikisource
Media related toJ. M. Robertson at Wikimedia Commons| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forTyneside 1906–1918 | Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1911–1915 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the National Liberal Federation 1920–1923 | Succeeded by |
