author

Robert Cooper

1819–1868

A fierce 19th-century freethinker, this radical lecturer and writer challenged religious orthodoxy and argued for intellectual independence. His books and talks grew out of the reform movements and debating culture of industrial Britain.

1 Audiobook

Biblical Extracts; Or, The Holy Scriptures Analyzed; Showing Its Contradictions, Absurdities, and Immoralities

Biblical Extracts; Or, The Holy Scriptures Analyzed; Showing Its Contradictions, Absurdities, and Immoralities

by Robert Cooper

About the author

Born in 1819 and identified in library and book records as a secularist, Robert Cooper wrote some of the most outspoken freethought and anti-clerical works of his day. He is associated with early socialist and Owenite circles in Salford and Manchester, and his earliest confirmed publication, A Contrast Between the New Moral World and the Old Immoral World (1838), shows him engaging with the reformist politics of that movement.

Cooper became especially known for attacking traditional religious authority. His works include The Infidel's Text-Book and Biblical Extracts; Or, The Holy Scriptures Analyzed, books that argue against the divine authority of the Bible and press readers to examine scripture critically rather than accept it on trust.

He died in 1868. Although he is not widely remembered today, the surviving record presents him as part of a lively working-class culture of lectures, pamphlets, and public debate, where questions about religion, science, and social reform were argued with real urgency.