The opening part begins with the editor’s introduction, Butler’s preface, and a memoir of John Pickard Owen, reflecting personal struggles with faith and doubt. The early chapters of The Fair Haven then critique Christian apologetics, focusing on Strauss’s hallucination theory and the conversion of St. Paul. Butler highlights weaknesses in conventional defenses of Christianity and questions the reliability of Paul’s testimony. This section establishes the conflict between reason and belief as the central theme. Part 1 thus lays the intellectual groundwork for the book’s debates.
