Austin Farrer

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Austin Marsden Farrer (born October 11, 1904 in Hampstead (London) , † December 29, 1968 ) was an English theologian and philosopher . His theological and philosophical work as well as his endeavors to deal with spiritual questions earned him the reputation of being one of the outstanding personalities in the Anglican Church of the 20th century.

Life

Farrer's parents, Augustus and Evangeline Farrer, had two daughters. His father was a Baptist pastor. Austin was raised in the Baptist faith and encouraged by his father to value science and learning. The young Farrer found the divisions within the Baptist Church disappointing and became an Anglican during his studies . He attended St. Paul's School in London, where he received a scholarship to Balliol College , Oxford . Spiritually at home in St Barnabas Church in Oxford, his theology and spirituality became deeply Anglo-Catholic , focusing more on the Anglican Book of Common Prayer than on ritual details. After receiving top grades, he moved to Ripon College Cuddesdon , a theological school, where he went through training with the future Archbishop of Canterbury Arthur Michael Ramsey . He provided a board of trustees ("curacy") in Dewsbury , West Yorkshire , whereupon he was invited to St Edmund Hall in Oxford in 1931 to become chaplain and tutor. He became a member of the Academy and Kaplan at Trinity College of Oxford University from 1935 to 1960. In 1959, a chair (the Regius Professor of Divinity) had to be filled, Farrer was concerned and has been thoroughly tested. His typological approach to reading the Bible, however, known from his books on the Gospel of Mark and Revelation , lay outside the main direction of Bible scholarship at that time; finally made his article about the "waiver of Q " ( "On dispensing with Q") caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. The theologian Henry Chadwick was hired in his place . The following year Farrer was appointed director of Keble College , Oxford. He held this post until his death shortly after Christmas 1968.
The year he died he was elected a member of the British Academy .

Farrer was buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford.

plant

Farrer's proposed solution to the synoptic problem : Mark was written first, was Matthew's source and was used together with Luke by Luke .

In his research on biblical topics, he was seen as independent and headstrong. So he presented his own solution to the synoptic question , which is still recognized and followed today: the Farrer hypothesis . In England it is considered a serious alternative to the two-source theory and is represented by Michael Goulder and Mark Goodacre .
Farrer's main work, however, was of a philosophical nature. But even here he did not follow the main stream of his empirical contemporaries, such as B. John Wisdom , Gilbert Ryle or Alfred Jules Ayer . The "Metaphysicals", as his small group of like-minded thinkers were called, was in a completely different mood. Farrer's thinking was essentially Thomistic . One of his closest friends was the Christian apologist CS Lewis , who dedicated his book Reflections on the Psalms to Farrer. He in turn brought the sacraments to Lewis before his death. Others included JRR Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers . So it is perhaps not surprising that after his death Farrer was more studied and admired in the United States than in his own country.

He made a greater contribution to Christian thinking through his idea of ​​the 'double agency', namely that human activities are entirely ours, but also God's work, albeit perfectly hidden. Farrer described God as an 'intelligent act' for such purposes.

He was known as a sensitive preacher, several volumes of sermons were printed - all but one posthumously. He had the gift of combining considerable scholarship with deep spirituality.

Publications

Farrer has authored several books on the Gospel of Mark , two commentaries on the Book of Revelation , a study of the temptation of Jesus under the title " The Triple Victory ", philosophical works such as: B. Freedom of will , finite and infinite, and belief and speculation . Among the apologetic books include A Science of God? , Saving Belief and a Defense of God's Goodness entitled " Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited: an essay on providence and evil ". He also wrote a Lord, I believe meditation and numerous collections of sermons. Some of his articles have been collected and published.

overview

  • 1948: The Glass of Vision , The Bampton Lectures. Westminster: Dacre Press. (Lectures on the meaning of metaphysical philosophy, the meaning of written revelation and the meaning of poetry).
  • 1962: Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited: an essay on providence and evil , Nathaniel Taylor Lectures; 1961. London: Collins
  • 1964: Saving Belief: a discussion of essentials . London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  • 1967: Faith and Speculation: an essay in philosophical theology; containing the Deems Lectures 1964 . London: A. & C. Black
  • 1968: A Science of God? London: Geoffrey Bles 1966.
  • 1972: Reflective Faith: essays in philosophical theology ; ed. by Charles C. Conti. London: SPCK ("Chronological List of Published Writings: 1933-1973": pp. [227] -234.)
  • 1973: The End of Man ; (Sermons) ed. by Charles C. Conti. London: SPCK
  • 1976: The Brink of Mystery : (Sermons) ed. by Charles C. Conti. London: SPCK
  • 1976: Interpretation and Belief ; ed. by Charles C. Conti. London: SPCK, ISBN 0281028893
  • 1991: Austin Farrer: the Essential Sermons ; selected and ed. by Leslie Houlden. London: SPCK

Secondary literature

  • Conti, Charles: Metaphysical Personalism . Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995.
  • Curtis, Philip: A Hawk among Sparrows: a biography of Austin Farrer . London: SPCK, 1985.
  • Duncan, Steven: The Proof of the External World: Cartesian Theism and the Possibility of Knowledge . Cambridge, James Clarke, 2008.
  • Hebblethwaite, Brian, and Edward Henderson, (Eds.): Divine Action: Studies Inspired by the Philosophical Theology of Austin Farrer . Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1990.
  • Hefling, Charles: Jacob's Ladder: Theology and Spirituality in the Thought of Austin Farrer . Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 1997.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Farrer, Austin Marsden , in: FL Cross (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church . New York: Oxford University Press 2005
  2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ See his book Faith and Speculation (1968)
  4. ^ Philip Curtis, A Hawk among Sparrows: a biography of Austin Farrer, London 1985.
personal data
SURNAME Farrer, Austin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Farrer, Austin Marsden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English theologian and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead (London)
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1968