Sir Isaac Newton’s views on Christianity revealed in notebook lost for 350 years

By Ben Turner via SWNS

Sir Isaac Newton's "complex" views on Christianity are revealed in a lost notebook that has been uncovered after almost 350 years.

The 17,000-word manuscript, written by Newton's university roommate and assistant John Wickins, is the earliest datable evidence of the mathematician's theological writing.

It highlights Newton's questions over God's perfect foreknowledge and human free will at a time when England was a staunchly Christian nation.

The notebook was bought at auction for £63,000 ($85,194) last March and has been added to the library at Cambridge University, where Newton studied.

"The notebook of John Wickins is a fine complement to these papers and adds significantly to our understanding of Newton and his writings, as well as casting new light on other manuscripts in the University Library,"said Dr. Jill Whitelock, of Cambridge University Library.

"It is only through the documentary heritage represented by his scientific and mathematical papers that we see a full picture of Newton and how he worked.

"The papers represent one of the most important archives of scientific and intellectual work on global phenomena."

Newton was a 17th-century mathematician and physicist who is credited with discovering gravity.

Written in English and Latin, the notebook contains Newton's university debates and three letters that he wrote to Wickins, who he referred to as his "loving chamber-fellow."

One Latin segment records a university "disputation," or debate, where Newton covered the sensitive topic of the compatibility of God’s perfect foreknowledge with human free will.

Newton privately held unorthodox Christian beliefs and, by 1690, had dismantled the standard biblical proofs for the doctrine of the Trinity

It was not until after his death in 1727 that his views became public.

The manuscript was compiled while Wickins, who helped copy Newton's notes, was a Fellow of Trinity College, a position he resigned in April 1684.

It was presumed lost for almost 350 years before it was bought at auction with funding from Friends of the National Libraries and Friends of Cambridge University Library.

Cambridge University Library holds the largest collection of Newton's scientific works, which range from his early papers and college notebooks to the ground-breaking Waste Book and his own annotated copy of the first edition of the Principia.