Charles E. Raven

Charles Earle Raven (born July 4, 1885 in London , † July 8, 1964 in Cambridge ) was a British Anglican theologian and writer .

Live and act

Raven was a son of John Earle and his wife Alice, b. Comber. He grew up in Uppingham. Thanks to a scholarship he could classical literature and theology at Caius College of Cambridge University study. He also dealt with biology. At this time he developed ideas for a combination of theology and scientific methods, which he deepened in his work throughout his life.

In 1909 Raven was ordained a priest. From 1909 to 1920 he was - interrupted by leave of absence - as dean and lecturer at Emmanuel College in Cambridge. In 1915 Raven became an Assistant Master at the Tonbridge School.

From 1917 to 1918 he was a chaplain in the British Army in World War I for use. Under the impact of the war, he developed into a staunch pacifist. In 1919 Raven received a position as a lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin and continued his duties at Emmanuel College until 1920. In 1920 he went to Bletchingley in Surrey as principal , where he worked until 1924.

1924 Raven became a Canon of the Cathedral of Liverpool appointed, where he quickly made a name as a preacher. In 1931 he was promoted to Chancellor of the Cathedral.

In 1932 Raven returned to Cambridge University, where he taught as Regius Professor of Divinity until 1950 . From 1939 to 1950 he was there Masters at Christ's College . From 1947 to 1949 also Vice Chancellor of Cambridge.

Raven was one of Britain's most prominent pacifists in the 1930s. In line with his anti-militarist stance, he supported the Peace Pledge Union and the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

As a well-known pacifist, the National Socialist police authorities classified Raven as an ideological enemy: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a list of people who would be killed by the occupying forces in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht Subsequent SS special commands were to be identified and arrested with special priority.

As a theologian, Raven held pantheistic views of an omnipresence of God in nature and a solitude of all creation. In doing so, he accepted the theory of evolution , which he interpreted as a mechanism created by God, which serves to transform the divine will and the divine goals into material reality. For Raven, Jesus was the highest expression of God's presence in the world. With regard to the internal organization of the Church, he spoke early in favor of the admission of women to the priesthood.

In 1948 he was elected a member of the British Academy .

family

Raven was married to Margaret Ermyntrude Buchanan Wollaston, called Bee, († 1944 in Anglesey ) since 1910 . With her he had four children: Mary Eleanor, Elizabeth, John Earle and Margaret.

In 1954, his second marriage was to the American Ethel Lyman Paine Moors from Boston, 82 years old, for a very short time. She was the widow of financier John F. Moors. He had his third marriage since 1956 with the former Belgian Resistance fighter Hélène Jeanty, then Hélène Jeanty Raven, with her nickname Ninette often serving as a further first name.

Hélène Jeanty Raven became known worldwide when her correspondence with Albert Speer from 1971 to 1981 on the occasion of an auction of almost 100 letters between the two became known and described in detail in 2007 . In a letter Speer confesses to her that he was very much present at Himmler's speech in Poznan ; he knew about the Holocaust what he had denied until then. Most of the Speer biographies were worthless at this point.

Fonts

• What think ye of Christ? 1916.
• Christian Socialism, 1848-1854 , 1920.
• The Mission to Cambridge University, 1919-20: A Report , 1920.
• Apollinarianism; an essay on the Christology of the Early Church , 1923.
• The Ramblings of a Bird Lover , 1927.
• The Creator Spirit. A Survey of Christian Doctrine in the Light of Biology, Psychology and Mysticism , 1927.
• The Quest of Religion , 1928.
• Women and the Ministry , 1929.
• A Wanderer's Way , 1929.
  • German: The Wanderer. A path through time to the eternal . Salzer, Heilbronn 1938
• Musings and Memories , 1931.
• Looking Forward (towards 1940) , 1931.
• Jesus and the Gospel of Love , 1931.
• The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ , 1933.
• Liverpool Cathedral: An Impression of its early Years , 1933.
• War and the Christian , 1938.
• The Bases of Christian Pacifism , 1038 (with Charles Harold Dodd, George Hogarth Carnaby Macgregor)
• The Cross and the Crisis , 1940.
• John Ray, Naturalist, his Life and Works , 1942.
• Science, Religion, and the Future, a Course of eight Lectures , 1943.
• Religion & Science: A Diagnosis , 1946.
• English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray; A Study of the Making of the Modern World , 1947 - awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the Biography category
• In Praise of Birds , 1950.
• Alex Wood: The Man and his Message , 1952.
• Science and the Christian Man , 1952.
• Natural Religion and Christian Theology , 1953.
• Science, Medicine and Morals. A Survey and a Suggestion , 1959.
• Paul and the Gospel of Jesus , 1960.
• Teilhard de Chardin: Scientist and Seer , 1962.

literature

• Eugene Marion Klaaren: Religious Origins of Modern Science. Eerdmans, 1977, ISBN 0-8028-1683-5 , p. 4.
• Pacifism in the Twentieth Century, by Peter Brock and Nigel Young. Syracuse University Press, New York, 1999 ISBN 0-8156-8125-9 (p.101).
• IT Ramsey: Charles Earle Raven, 1885–1964 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 51 , 1966, pp. 467-484 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charles Raven in the spotlight ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Introduced by Charles Raven on Christ's College, Cambridge website; accessed on October 27, 2016.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexander Nairne	Regius Professor of Divinity 1932-1950	Arthur Michael Ramsey