About the site

The Bishop Butler Society Ltd exists to know Bishop Butler better
and to make Bishop Butler better known for the benefit of all.

The Bishop Butler we aim to bring to public view is not the corpse now resting in Bristol Cathedral, but the spirit that animated the body from 18 May 1692 to 16 June 1752.
Lacking telepathic powers, we follow Bishop Butler’s recommendation to collect the total evidence, assemble the evidence as a cumulative case, and then leave readers, viewers, and auditors free to draw their own conclusions.  These anti-authoritarian principles, which Butler insisted on as part of the discipline of life, have in our time been challenged by people all over the political and intellectual spectrum. 

The modern atheist who reads Butler for his psychological insights is as welcome to what we do as the adherent of one sect or another who sees the study of Butler as a spiritual exercise, as an aspect of the soul’s ascent to the divine. 

Since our aim is to examine all the evidence pertaining to Bishop Butler, we make it our business to examine the full range of responses, from the most crude and hostile to the most sophisticated and adulatory. 

We advise those who want to study Bishop Butler to consult the sources cited here, online or in print. 
We encourage those with something to say to attend the relevant conferences and submit for publication through the established channels. 
Anyone who is in Rochester, New York, is welcome to visit our informal meetings or join in the activities of the Bishop Butler Study Center.