MANSEL, HENRY LONGEVILLE. - English theologian and philosopher, born at Cosgrove (Northamptonshire) on 6 Oct. 1820, died at Oxford on 31 July 1871, where he had been professor of Church history.
A follower of Hamilton’s metaphysical agnosticism (v.), in his writings *Limits of religious thought* (1858) and *Philosophy of the conditioned* (1866) he rigidifies the concept of the conceivability of God as absolute and infinite. “The absolute cannot be conceived either as conscious or unconscious; nor as complex or simple; it cannot be identified with the universe nor can it be distinguished from it” (*Limits of religious thought*, p. 30). Yet the very constitution of our spirit compels us to believe (and this belief is also founded on Revelation) in the existence of an absolute and infinite Being. Reid (v.) Kant (v.), through Hamilton’s phenomenistic interpretation of Kant, is evident. Agnosticism pushed to this point is scepticism of reason and pure fideism. Among his other works should be noted *The limits of demonstrative science* (1853).