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Archbishop Whately: Human Nature and Christian Assistance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Ray E. McKerrow
Ray E. McKerrow
Affiliation:
Mr. McKerrow is associate professor of speech communication in the University of Maine at Orono.
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Extract

Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin (1831–1863), has been characterized as a representative of the Broad Church movement of the early to mid-nineteenth century. Convinced that the Church of England's sacraments and liturgies, indeed its very structure, should correspond to the times and not to some ancient formulary, Whately argued continuously for a general reformation of its rules and regulations and for a separate church body to arbitrate disputes over spiritual matters. Recognizing the force of his arguments on these and myriad other subjects, a reviewer for the Christian Observer commented that “the Archbishop is a great intellectual gladiator, and all parties will confess that it is far pleasanter to have him with them than against them.” The nature of his role as a Christian advocate also was noted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “He showed a rare union of literary talent, knowledge of human nature, and administrative ability, and the work that he accomplished places him in the highest rank of Christian statesmen. … [His essays] have had a wide influence upon the course of religious thought in England for more than a quarter of a century.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 166 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1981

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References

1. Benn, Alfred William, The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (1906; reprint ed., New York, 1962), 2:81;Google ScholarStorr, Vernon F., The Development of English Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 1800–1860 (London, 1913), p. 231.Google Scholar

2. Review of Whately's, Thoughts on the New Dogma of the Church of Rome: A Charge, Delivered in June, 1853, in Christian Observer, n.s. 212 (08 1855): 571.Google Scholar

3. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1862–1865 (24 05 1864 meeting), pp. 317–319.Google Scholar

4. Examples include: Elements of Rhetoric, 7th ed. (London, 1864);Google ScholarEssays on … Paul, 5th ed. (London, 1845);Google ScholarEssays on … Peculiarities of the Christian Religion, 5th ed. (London, 1846)Google Scholar, 7th ed. (London, 1856); Essays on the Errors of Romanism, 5th ed. (London, 1856).Google Scholar

5. Whately to Mrs. Thomas Arnold, 2 November 1849, quoted in Whately, E. Jane, Life and Correspondence of Richard Whately, D.D., Late Archibishop of Dublin, 2 vols. (London, 1866), 2:154Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Life).

6. Representative studies noting Whately's influence include: Selby, Robin C., The Principle of Reserve in the Writings of John Henry Cardinal Newman (Oxford, 1975);Google ScholarVargish, Thomas, Newman: The Contemplation of Mind (Oxford, 1970);Google ScholarSwanston, Hamish F. G., Ideas of Order (Assen, The Netherlands, 1973);Google ScholarAkenson, Donald H., The Church of Ireland (New Haven, 1971);Google ScholarAkenson, Donald H., The Irish Education Experiment (London, 1970).Google Scholar

7. Sanders, Charles R., Coleridge and the Broad Church Movement (1942; reprint ed., New York, 1972), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

8. See McKerrow, Ray E., “Richard Whately: Religious Controversialist of the Nineteenth Century,” Prose Studies 1800–1900 2 (1979): 160–187;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSanders, , Coleridge, p. 12.Google Scholar

9. Bowen, Desmond, The Protestant Crusade in Ireland, 1800–1870 (Dublin, 1978), pp. 290–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. For a more detailed study of Whately's attacks on the Tractarians, see McKerrow, “Richard Whately,” and Rashid, Salim, “Richard Whately and the Struggle for Rational Christianity in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Historical Magazine of the Episcopal Protestant Church 47 (1978): 293–311.Google Scholar

11. For a discussion of Maurice's theology, see Inglis, K. S., Churches and the Working Class in Victorian England (London, 1963), pp. 262–271;Google ScholarBrose, Olive J., Frederick Denison Maurice (Athens, Ohio, 1971);Google ScholarBowen, Desmond, The Idea of the Victorian Church (Montreal, 1968), pp. 311–323;Google Scholar and Sanders, Coleridge.

12. SirMaurice, John Frederick, The Life of F.D. Maurice, 2 vols., 3d ed. (London, 1884), 2: 358–359;Google Scholar cited in Sanders, , Coleridge, p. 13.Google Scholar

13. The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion, Being the Bampton Lectures for the Year 1822. To Which are Added Five Sermons Before The University of Oxford and a Discourse by Archbishop King with Notes and Appendix, 4th ed. (London, 1859), p. 116Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Bampton Lectures).

14. Cautions for the Times, Addressed to the Parishioners of a Parish in England by their Former Pastor, 3d ed. (London, 1861), pp. 78, 103, 105, and 162Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Cautions). Whately did not author the essays, printed separately in 1851 and 1852, and later collected together into a single volume; however, he did edit them and acknowledged they were “published with my assistance, and supervision, and sanction.” Whately Papers, Lambeth Palace Library, ms. 2164, fols. 157–162 (letter fragment).

15. Essays (Second Series) on Some of the Difficulties in the Writings of the Apostle Paul and in Other Parts of the New Testament, 5th ed., rev. and enlarged (London, 1845), p. 265.Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Paul).

16. Bampton Lectures, p. 14.

17. Whately, Richard, ed., Paley's Moral Philosophy, With Annotations (London, 1859), p. 46.Google Scholar

18. Whately, Richard, Habits: A Lecture (Dublin, [1862]), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

19. Whately is heavily indebted for this notion of habits to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

20. Whately, , Habits, p. 8.Google Scholar

21. Cautions, p. 478.

22. Whately, , Habits, p. 8.Google Scholar

23. Bampton Lectures, p. 44.

24. Cautions, p. 83.

25. Whately, Richard, “Juvenile Library,” in Miscellaneous Lectures and Reviews (London, 1861), p. 318.Google Scholar The essay was originally published in the London Review 1 (1829): 404–419Google Scholar, an ill-fated journal started by Whately's friend Joseph Blanco White with the assistance of Whately and Nassau William Senior. For a brief history of the journal, see The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodical Literature, s.v. “London Review.”

26. Cautions, pp. 203–204.

27. Ibid., pp. 203–209.

28. Paley, William, A View of the Evidences of Christianity, in Three Parts, with Annotations, ed. Whately, Richard (New York, 1860), p. 4.Google Scholar

29. Paul, pp. 34–35.

30. Cautions, p. 480–481.

31. Ibid., p. 481.

32. Paul, p. 226.

33. Whately, , “Juvenile Library,” p. 323.Google Scholar

34. Bampton Lectures, pp. 111–113.

35. Cautions, p. 82.

36. Paul, p. 8.

37. Whately, Richard, A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State, by a Country Pastor 2d ed. (London, 1830), p. 292.Google Scholar

38. Cautions, p. 207.

39. Life, 2:157.

40. Bampton Lectures, p. 352.

41. Cautions, p. 357.

42. Brunner, Emil, Revelation and Reason: The Christian Doctrine of Faith and Knowledge, trans. Wyon, Olive (Philadelphia, 1946), pp. 62–63.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., pp. 22–30.

44. Whately, Richard, Thoughts and Apophthegms from the Writings of Archibishop Whately (Philadelphia, 1856), p. 40.Google Scholar This volume, apparently put together by the publishers, consists of excerpts from Whately's writings; the sources are not given. Whately's “common sense” position is dependent on the philosophy of Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart. For a fuller exposition of Whately's philosophical views, see McKerrow, Ray E., “Whately and the Nature of Human Knowledge,” The Journal of the History of Ideas 42 (1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, forthcoming.

45. Paul, pp. 156, 183; see Richard Whately, ed., Bacon's Essays with Annotations, notes, glossarial index by Heard, Franklin Fiske, (1859; student's ed., Boston, 1887), p. 163.Google Scholar

46. Bampton Lectures, p. 45.

47. Ibid., p. 45.

48. Paul, pp. 307–308.

49. Whately, Richard, The Kingdom of Christ Delineated, in Two Essays on Our Lord's Own Account of his Person, and of the Nature of his Kingdom, and on the Constitution, Powers, and Ministry of a Christian Church as appointed by Himself, last London ed., with additions (Philadelphia, 1843), pp. 28 and 37.Google Scholar

50. Paul, p. 303; see Whately, Richard, The Judgment of Conscience and Other Sermons, ed. Whately, E. Jane (London, 1864), pp. 88–89.Google Scholar

51. Paul, p. 368.

52. Whately, , Kingdom of Christ, p. 93.Google Scholar

53. Whately, Richard, “Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte,” in Famous Pamphlets, ed. Morley, Henry (1819; reprint ed., London, 1886), pp. 274–275.Google Scholar See Pomeroy, Ralph S., “Whately's Historic Doubts: Argument and Origin,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 49 (1963): 62–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54. Whately, Richard, Introductory Lessons on Morals and Christian Evidences (Cambridge, 1857), p. 213.Google Scholar

55. Ibid., pp. 213 and 223.

56. Whately, , The Judgment of Conscience and Other Sermons, p. 14.Google Scholar

57. Paul, p. 199.

58. See Ray E. McKerrow, “Richard Whately.”

59. Whately, Richard, Elements of Rhetoric, ed. Ehninger, Douglas, 7th ed. (1846; reprint ed., Carbondale, Ill., 1963);Google Scholar for a discussion of the role of probable argument in religious and other matters, see McKerrow, Ray E., “Probable Argument and Proof in Whately's Theory of Rhetoric,” Central States Speech Journal 26 (Winter 1975): 259–266.Google Scholar