Powell, Baden

POWELL, BADEN: English mathematician and theological writer; b. at Stamford Hill, London, Aug. 22, 1796; d. in London June 11, 1860. He studied at Oriel College, Oxford (B.A., 1817; M.A., 1820); was curate of Midhurst, 1820, and vicar of Plumstead, Kent, 1821–27. From 1827 till his death he was Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford. He opposed the Tractarians, worked for university reform, and was a member of the committee of 1851. In 1860 he contributed to the famous Essays and Reviews (q.v.) an essay On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity. His position was, in the main, rationalistic. He rejected miracles as being out of harmony with the methods of God's government. His works of theological interest are, The Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth (London, 1838); Tradition Unveiled (1839; Supplement, 1840); Essays on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, the Unity of Worlds, and the Philosophy of Creation (1855; 2d ed., 1856); The Study of the Evidences of Natural Theology (in Oxford Essays, 1856); Christianity without Judaism (1857); and The Order of Nature Considered in Reference to the Claims of Revelation (1859).

Bibliography: DNB, xlvi. 237–238, where other literature is cited. Consult also works cited under Essays and Reviews, and of. the list of works called out by Powell's essay in that volume, given in British Museum Catalogue under "Powell, Baden."