author

B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker

1821–1883

An English-born Methodist minister and philosopher, he spent his later career in Michigan, where he taught at the University of Michigan and wrote widely read works on religion and philosophy. His best-known books explore how Christian belief relates to Greek thought, modern skepticism, and the idea of a theistic world.

2 Audiobooks

Christianity and Greek Philosophy

Christianity and Greek Philosophy

by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker

The Theistic Conception of the World

The Theistic Conception of the World

by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker

About the author

Born in Yorkshire in 1821, Benjamin Franklin Cocker was raised in the Wesleyan tradition. After time in business in England and Australia, he moved to the United States in 1856, settled in Adrian, Michigan, and soon entered the Detroit Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

He served several Michigan pastorates, including Palmyra, Adrian, Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor. In 1869 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, a post he held until his death on April 8, 1883.

Cocker was known as a scholar, preacher, and teacher whose writing tried to connect faith with serious philosophical inquiry. Among his notable books are Christianity and Greek Philosophy, The Theistic Conception of the World, Lectures on the Truth of the Christian Religion, and Some of the Characteristics of Modern Scepticism.