ABSTRACT
Butler’s Sermons present us with many closely-connected doctrines and arguments. But these are not presented in a continuous or systematic form. As he says himself, modestly:
One result of this is that many of the doctrines and arguments are undeveloped. Since the Analogy of Religion, by contrast, is a much more systematic treatise, it is often helpful to turn to it for amplification of things Butler tells us in the Sermons. But the fact that they are indeed sermons should remind us that even when he is arguing quite abstruse points, it is practical and pastoral concerns that are always uppermost in Butler’s mind. This practical emphasis dictates his method, as indeed it also does in his philosophical theology.
