A partly satirical and cynical view of the theological debate between Joseph Priestley and David Levi raging during the late 1780’s. Here Priestley is given the guise of the ‘Socinian Doctor’ and Levi as the ‘Jew Rabbi’, the author of the work acting the part of umpire in the debate by using the nom de plume of the ‘Sage Philosopher’. ‘Levi (1742–1801) turned from expositor of Judaism to defender of the Jewish faith when Joseph Priestley published his Letter to the Jews (1786), urging them to convert. He published a lengthy answer which led to a many-sided controversy with several different Christian divines who were trying to convince the Jews that various biblical prophecies mandated their conversion. Levi carefully and studiously debunked such claims.’ [ODNB] It was probably not surprising that Reason Mis-shaped was published to add its own weight to the controversy once David Levi’s reply to Priestley had been published. Plenty of other Protestant theologians added to their own defence of Christianity, including replies from Samuel Cooper, James Bicheno, Philip David Krauter, John Hadley Swain, and Anselm Bayly, with Priestley adding his Second Letter to the Jews. Reason Mis-shaped is an odd confection with its division into Acts, interspersed with the Odes, in some ways much like a prose play. Walk on parts are given to the prophets, extracts from both Old and New Testaments proliferate the narrative. The typesetters must have earned their wages as there is an excessive reliance on capitals and italics. The arguments of the ‘Socinian Doctor’ and ‘Jew Rabbi’ and the ‘Sage Philosopher’ are rehearsed, but this is not an equal contest, as the ‘umpire’ clearly adds a certain anti-Semitic slant whilst introducing his own ideas. Generally, however, the work is an unequal attack on both Preistley and Levi with an unsuccessful attempt to plot an altogether different course, although what that course is, is rather open to question. Probably the text being shaped like a pantomime put off other theologians from buying the work, regarding it as something not to be taken seriously. This possibly accounts for the works rarity, although having no imprint it may have been published privately in a limited number. A supposition probably confirmed by a the complete lack of any contemporary notice given to the work, or indeed much subsequent interest. The second work bound with Reason Mis-shaped is a translation of Bossuet’s Exposition de la doctrine de l’église catholique sur les matières de controverse which was first published in 1671. Several seventeenth and eighteenth century English translations were periodically issued, the publisher again preferring to keep their name out of such controversial literature. I. OCLC records two copies in the UK, at the BL and Downside Abbey, and two in North America, at McMaster and St. Louis; II. OCLC records four copies in North America, at McMaster, Bowdoin College, Emory and the Huntington.