Daniel Waterland

1683-1740. Theologian. Born in Lincolnshire and educated at Lincoln School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he became master of his college (1714-40) and vice-chancellor of the university (1715). Much of his life was involved in the Deist* controversy. His accurate scholarship and brilliant writing did much to restore Trinitarianism in England against Arians* and Deists. His scholarly work Critical History of the Athanasian Creed (1713) remained the standard work on the subject for 150 years. In A Vindication of Christ's Divinity (1719) he attacked Samuel Clarke* and Daniel Whitby.* Waterland placed little faith in the evidential value of mystical experience or philosophical argument; he sought always to base Christian faith on objective evidence.