I’m excited to announce the fourteenth in the Freethinker’s series of free online seminars for all those interested in freethought history and its enduring relevance. The webinars, hosted by me and lasting around one hour, will feature expert guest speakers, to whom you’ll have a chance to ask your questions. There is no set schedule for these webinars; the best way to stay informed about when they are happening is to sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter, which will also keep you updated on all other things Freethinker.
The webinars will be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel. (This post will be updated and the video of the webinar—on which more in a moment—will appear below once the recording is available. All posts about these webinars will be accessible here, and all such posts will also be updated in due course when the webinar recordings are available, thus forming a complete catalogue of the series).
Register for Freethought History Webinar #14: Joseph McCabe, Apostate Monk and Scourge of the Supernatural. With Michael Lloyd-Jones.
The webinar will take place on 6 October 2026 at 7 pm UK time (2 pm ET/1 pm CT/12 pm MDT/11 am MST/11 am PT) via Zoom.
About the webinar: Joseph McCabe (1867-1955) was, for a period of nearly sixty years, an endlessly combative campaigner for rationalism and for many decades he was arguably the most famous freethinker in the world.
He spent many years as a Franciscan monk. But religious doubts developed until, in 1896, by now a convinced agnostic, he walked out of the Church and for the rest of his life engaged in an outspoken, highly informed analysis and critique of all forms of supernaturalism. His scope was encyclopaedic, bringing a brilliant clarity to every aspect of rationalist argument.
McCabe was equipped with endless energy and over a long life he wrote hundreds of books, many of them rationalist classics, but also including works of history, biography, popular science, and social/political commentary. He was much sought-after as a platform speaker; he gave thousands of lectures, including tours of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. He was also an accomplished debater whose successes included being the only person to defeat in debate the tricksy fundamentalist Reverend William Bell Riley.
In the early part of the last century McCabe became convinced that Catholicism was a dying faith. But events from 1930 onwards awakened him to new dangers, and he wrote many acutely informed critiques of Vatican involvement in contemporary world politics. His criticisms were particularly deadly because what McCabe did not know about Catholicism was not worth knowing. The Church conducted a bitter propaganda campaign against him and even recruited the FBI in its efforts to suppress his work.
In this webinar, Michael Lloyd-Jones will speak about McCabe’s life and describe how, through books and lectures, he brought knowledge and understanding to perhaps the widest audience ever reached by a rationalist author and speaker.
About the speaker: Michael Lloyd-Jones is a writer with an interest in freethought history and is the author most recently of Joseph McCabe: The Haldeman-Julius Years. His interest in Joseph McCabe was first sparked in 1969 by a reference to him in the Freethinker that prompted him to start researching McCabe’s life and work. He was then able to interview and correspond with McCabe’s younger son and daughter and others in the rationalist movement who had known him. Lloyd-Jones tracked down and acquired all that survived of McCabe’s papers, and over more than fifty years he has gathered a large collection of materials relating to that author’s life and work. He is currently working on a full-length study of McCabe’s life. You can read a Freethinker article by him about McCabe here.
You must register to secure your place at the webinar. To do so, click here or on the image below.
With thanks to Bob Forder for suggesting these seminars and helping to organise them.
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