The Development of Collingwood’s Thought on History

Abstract

Religion and Philosophy (1916) was Collingwood’s first book.¹ He had already begun writing it in 1912, the year he both took a first class degree in literae humaniores and was elected to a philosophy fellowship at Pembroke College (in fact he was elected before taking his degree).² In 1914 the book was finished.³ In this work, Collingwood develops a highly intellectualized view on religion, which is stated right at the beginning as follows: ‘This book is the result of an attempt to treat the Christian creed not as dogma but as a critical solution of a philosophical problem’ (RPh, xiii); and further on: ‘In the first place, religion is undoubtedly an affair of the intellect, a philosophical activity. Its very centre and foundation is creed, and every creed is a view of the universe, a theory of man and the world, a theory of God’ (RPh, xv).