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Outspoken Essays
The Essays in this volume were written at various times before and during the Great War. In reading them through for republication, I have to ask myself whether my opinions on social science and on the state of religion, the two subjects which are mainly dealt with in this collection, have been modified by the greatest calamity which has ever befallen the civilised world, or by the issue of the struggle. I find very little that I should now wish to alter.
- GenresNonfiction
146 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2015
About the author
William Ralph Inge
157 books25 followersSir William Ralph Inge was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. After taking a double first in Classics, he became a tutor at Hertford College, Oxford, and was made a deacon in the Church of England in 1888. After a time as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, Inge was elected Dean of St. Paul's cathedral in 1911 by Asquith, a position he held until 1934.
During his life, Inge was President of the Aristotelian society, a columnist for the Evening Standard, a fellow of the British Academy, and a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He received honorary doctorates from Oxford, Aberdeen, Durham, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. Inge received honorary fellowships from King's and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge, and Hertford College, Oxford.
During his life, Inge was President of the Aristotelian society, a columnist for the Evening Standard, a fellow of the British Academy, and a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He received honorary doctorates from Oxford, Aberdeen, Durham, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. Inge received honorary fellowships from King's and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge, and Hertford College, Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 31, 2014
Dean Inge was an Anglican priest, theologian, and essayist around the turn of the last century. He's also one of those people who gets frequently quoted, so I decided to give this collection of essays (available for free) a try.
It's a mixed bag, though when it's good it's a fascinating glimpse at relatively conservative, religiously-oriented, intellectual thought of the first part of the Twentieth Century. Inge's essays here were written over a spread from the late 1890s through WWI (the book was published in 1919).
Where he talks about current events, especially related to international politics leading up to the war, it's an interesting insight, pulling in political and economic factors not always discussed in modern histories, but also including a lot of broad generalizations about "peoples" (the French, the Germans, the English, the Americans, the Russians, etc.) that smack as national / cultural / ethnic stereotypes. That's not surprising, given some of his other essays where peoples (national and racial, including "Asiatics" and Africans) are similarly categorized, and the subject of eugenics and racial vigor and identity rear their often ugly head (as they did in the writings of so many intellectuals of that era). To be fair, while Inge is clearly loyal and preferential to the British, he's willing to draw on both positive and negative stereotypes of all such groupings; there is no question he thinks the "Anglo-Saxon" elites are the pinnacle of humanity, but his churchly orientation means he isn't blind to their feet of clay, either. He rails against the labor movement (especially in its strikes during the War) and socialism (for its tendency toward atheism), but is not afraid to criticize the avarice and social destructiveness of industrialism and modern capitalism.
Where he delves into more directly religious matters, it gets both more and less interesting. His lengthy writings about the various religious conflicts within the Anglican Church (and between Angligans and Catholics -- this is only a few decades since John Newman's defection, and since the assumption of Infallibility by the Pope) range between the obscure and the still-relevant (for those into such things). He tends to be be fairly conservative High Church -- but scoffs at the rejection of science or such things as Biblical inerrancy (with some still-timely put-downs for his American brethren). The idea of local parishes exerting any sort of control over the hiring or pay of CoE priests is absurd, but he's again fair enough to note where conservatives in the Anglican Church have their own blind spots and problems.
He's also a huge fan of St Paul, as noted in one biographical essay about the man. Though he acknowledges modern Biblical scholarship about the inauthenticity of some of the Epistles, he still finds Paul attractive and inspirational in a way that many modern Christians fail to.
Overall, I enjoyed these pieces, even the ones that delved into church politics of generations past. I don't know who I would recommend this book to, but I enjoyed the insight into the mind of one of the great British thinkers of his era, a man that both Tolkien and Lewis would have known and been influenced by. I have some other, similar collections from him, and will visit them some day as well.
It's a mixed bag, though when it's good it's a fascinating glimpse at relatively conservative, religiously-oriented, intellectual thought of the first part of the Twentieth Century. Inge's essays here were written over a spread from the late 1890s through WWI (the book was published in 1919).
Where he talks about current events, especially related to international politics leading up to the war, it's an interesting insight, pulling in political and economic factors not always discussed in modern histories, but also including a lot of broad generalizations about "peoples" (the French, the Germans, the English, the Americans, the Russians, etc.) that smack as national / cultural / ethnic stereotypes. That's not surprising, given some of his other essays where peoples (national and racial, including "Asiatics" and Africans) are similarly categorized, and the subject of eugenics and racial vigor and identity rear their often ugly head (as they did in the writings of so many intellectuals of that era). To be fair, while Inge is clearly loyal and preferential to the British, he's willing to draw on both positive and negative stereotypes of all such groupings; there is no question he thinks the "Anglo-Saxon" elites are the pinnacle of humanity, but his churchly orientation means he isn't blind to their feet of clay, either. He rails against the labor movement (especially in its strikes during the War) and socialism (for its tendency toward atheism), but is not afraid to criticize the avarice and social destructiveness of industrialism and modern capitalism.
Where he delves into more directly religious matters, it gets both more and less interesting. His lengthy writings about the various religious conflicts within the Anglican Church (and between Angligans and Catholics -- this is only a few decades since John Newman's defection, and since the assumption of Infallibility by the Pope) range between the obscure and the still-relevant (for those into such things). He tends to be be fairly conservative High Church -- but scoffs at the rejection of science or such things as Biblical inerrancy (with some still-timely put-downs for his American brethren). The idea of local parishes exerting any sort of control over the hiring or pay of CoE priests is absurd, but he's again fair enough to note where conservatives in the Anglican Church have their own blind spots and problems.
He's also a huge fan of St Paul, as noted in one biographical essay about the man. Though he acknowledges modern Biblical scholarship about the inauthenticity of some of the Epistles, he still finds Paul attractive and inspirational in a way that many modern Christians fail to.
Overall, I enjoyed these pieces, even the ones that delved into church politics of generations past. I don't know who I would recommend this book to, but I enjoyed the insight into the mind of one of the great British thinkers of his era, a man that both Tolkien and Lewis would have known and been influenced by. I have some other, similar collections from him, and will visit them some day as well.
August 25, 2023
🖋️ Good collection of poignant essays. I enjoyed reading this book.
📙 This book was published in 1920.
🟢The e-book version can be found on Project Gutenberg.
🟣Kindle.
🔲 Contents:
📙 This book was published in 1920.
🟢The e-book version can be found on Project Gutenberg.
🟣Kindle.
🔲 Contents:
🔹 CONTENTS
PREFACE
OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS
PATRIOTISM
THE BIRTH-RATE
THE FUTURE OF THE ENGLISH RACE
BISHOP GORE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
ROMAN CATHOLIC MODERNISM
CARDINAL NEWMAN
ST. PAUL
INSTITUTIONALISM AND MYSTICISM
THE INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY
SURVIVAL AND IMMORTALITY
⭐️From the frontispiece: All the Essays in this volume, except the first, have appeared in the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly Review, or the Hibbert Journal. I have to thank the Publishers and Editors of those Reviews for their courtesy in permitting me to reprint them. The articles on The Birth-Rate, The Future of the English Race, Bishop Gore and the Church of England, and Cardinal Newman are from the Edinburgh Review; those on Patriotism, Catholic Modernism, St. Paul, and The Indictment against Christianity are from the Quarterly Review; those on Institutionalism and Mysticism and Survival and Immortality from the Hibbert Journal. I have not attempted to remove all traces of overlapping, which I hope may be pardoned in essays written independently of each other; but a few repetitions have been excised.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews