| 释义 |
free-thinker|ˈfriːˌθɪŋkə(r)|
One who refuses to submit his reason to the control of authority in matters of religious belief; a designation claimed esp. by the deistic and other rejectors of Christianity at the beginning of the 18th c.
The sect mentioned in the first quot. seems to be identical with the ‘free seekers’ (quot. 1693 s.v. free D. 1 c).
1692S. Smith (title) The Religious Imposter..dedicated to Doctor S—lm—n, and the rest of the new Religious Fraternity of Free-Thinkers, near Leather-Sellers-Hall..Printed..in the first year of Grace and Free Thinking. 1708Swift Sentim. Ch. of Eng. Man Wks. (1755) II. i. 56 The atheists, libertines, despisers of religion..that is to say, all those who usually pass under the name of Free-thinkers. 1836Hor. Smith Tin Trump. (1876) 170 Freethinker..has come to be synonymous with a libertine and a contemner of religion. 1874Morley Compromise (1886) 151 The modern freethinker does not attack Christianity; he explains it.
transf.1848Thackeray Van. Fair xlv, He (who had been..inclined to be a sad free thinker on these points) entered into poaching and game preserving with ardour. |