CLASSIFYING JOHN STUART MILL’S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS –WAS MILL A RELIGIOUS SCEPTIC?

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide context in the effort to accurately classify the religious views of John Stuart Mill. The philosopher, not commonly known for his thoughts on religion, has nevertheless contributed to this topic with his three posthumously published essays, titled Three Essays on Religion, which have sparked some controversy and prompted various interpretations since they were first published in 1874. Mill’s many interpreters have used differing terms in order to describe him in respect to his religious thinking. He has been described as a militant apostle, as an atheist, a theistic humanist, an agnostic, while Mill himself, in his writing, has provided an alternative, by speaking about religious scepticism as the most pertinent attitude for a rational thinker. Each of these terms is discussed separately in this paper, as the merits and suitability of using any of these terms is considered, with reference to the wider context of interpretative texts, Mill’s own writings, and correspondences.