JEVONS, FRANK BYRON. - English philologist especially of classical literature, student of the philosophy and comparative history of religions, and educationalist, b. 9 Sept. 1858 and d. 29 Feb. 1936.
A pupil of the famous Wadham College at Oxford, he then taught classical philology at the University of Durham from 1882 to 1910 and philosophy from 1910 to 1930. For a certain time he also had charge of the free students, that is, those not enrolled in any college, of the University of Durham itself, and from 1896 to 1923 he was rector of the Bishop's College at Hatfield: at the same time vice-chancellor (1910-11) and pro-vice-chancellor (1911 onward).
His first publications deal with classical historico-literary problems, but in a broader sense, extending as far as the prehistoric Aryan phase: The development of the Athenian democracy... A history of Greek literature (3rd ed. 1909); The prehistoric antiquities of the aryan peoples (1890); Plutarch's Roman questions (1892); A manual of Greek antiquities (1895).
The publications relating to religious and philosophical problems are more or less all treated from the ethnographic aspect, but they treat the religious problem from an exclusively phenomenological point of view. Religions are nothing other than the organic development of animism and totemism, an original and primitive phase that evolves up to monotheism (v.), the perfect and definitive form. This evolution was interrupted by three strong personalities: Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, who created separate, individual religions, outside natural and spontaneous evolution (cf. An introduction to the history of religion, 1896 [3rd ed. 1921]; Evolution, 1900; Evolution in religion, 1906; Study of comparative religion, 1913; Comparative religion, 1913; Personality, 1913; Philosophy: what is it?, 1914; Polytheism, 1916). The author is not unknown in Italy: a short work of his was translated by U. Pestalozza (L'idea di Dio nelle religioni primitive, Milan 1914); and his manner of reporting and interpreting religious-philosophical phenomena has secured for him a numerous clientele of readers among the classes least prepared scientifically.
Bibliography3 works
Enrico Hoffmann