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The Kingdom of God as the Design of Society: An Important Aspect of F. D. Maurice's Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Guy H. Ranson
Affiliation:
Trinity University, San Antonio

Extract

It is being said on every hand that the church is remiss in its moral responsibilities in our time. The church is conspicuous because of its failure to give ethical perspectives either to the world revolution of Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans rising to prominence or to America's revolution of minority groups. There are many to bemoan, however, and few to offer constructive solutions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1961

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References

1. See Ranson, Guy H., “The Trinity and Society,” Religion in Life, vol. XXIX, no. 1 (Winter, 19591960), pp. 6474Google Scholar, for an exposition of Maurice's Trinitarian ground of society.

2. Maurice, F. D., Social Morality (London: Macmillan, 1869), p. 24.Google Scholar

3. This thesis is elaborated in Social Morality.

4. This is particularly true in The Kingdom of Christ, 4th ed., 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1891).Google Scholar

5. See for example The Unity of the New Testament, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1884), vol. II, pp. 811.Google Scholar

6. Maurice, F. D., The Church a Family (Cambridge: Macmillan 1850) p. 110.Google Scholar

7. Maurice, F. D., The Lord's Prayer (London: Macmillan, 1902Google Scholar; the edition which has The Prayer-Book and The Lord's Prayer in one binding), Sermon I.

8. Maurice, F. D., Lincoln's Inn Sermons, new ed., 6 vols. (London: Macmillan), (18911892), vol. II, pp. 204–19, 263–4Google Scholar; The Church a Family, pp. 102–19.

9. Maurice, F. D., The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, 5th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1894), pp. 166–73.Google Scholar

10. Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol V, p. 108Google Scholar; What is Revelation? (Cambridge: Macmillan, 1859), p. 49.Google Scholar

11. Maurice, F. D., Lectures on Ecclesiastical History of the First and Second Centuries (Cambridge: Macmillan, 1854), pp. 4654.Google Scholar

12. Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol. V, pp. 255–68Google Scholar.

13. Maurice, F. D., Christmas Day and Other Sermons, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1892), p. 78.Google Scholar

14. Maurice, F. D., The Religions of the World, 6th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1886), p. 224.Google Scholar

15. Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol. VI, pp. 152–4.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., vol II, p. 51; Letters, vol II, pp. 569–70Google Scholar. Letters refers to The Life and Letters of Frederick Denison Maurice, Chiefly Told in His Own Letters, edited by his son, Frederick Maurice, in two volumes (London: Macmillan, 1884).Google Scholar

17. Letters, vol II, p. 570.Google Scholar

18. Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol. II, pp. 51–2.Google Scholar

19. Maurice, F. D., The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven (London: Macmillan, 1888), p. xv.Google Scholar

20. Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol. II, pp. 250–66.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., vol. II, pp. 133–46.

22. See Maurice, F. D., The Epistles of St. John (London: Macmillan, 1893), pp. 236–51;Google ScholarThe Unity of the New Testamont, vol. I, pp. 4950.Google Scholar

23. Maurice, F. D., The Doctrine of Sacrifice, new ed. (London: Macmillan, 1879), p. xli.Google Scholar

24. What is Revelation?, p. 399.

25. Maurice, F. D., Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, new ed. (London: Macmillan, 1886), vol. II, p. 605.Google Scholar

26. The Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 313.

27. Ibid., pp. xliii-iv.

28. Ibid., p. xliv.

29. Ibid., pp. xliv-v.

30. See the sermon, , “God's Government of Us: Its Ground and Its End,” Lincoln's Inn Sermons, vol. III, pp. 8497.Google Scholar

31. This is the title of Maurice's chapter XII of his book, The Conflict of Good and Evil in Our Day (London: Smith, Elder, 1865).Google Scholar

32. Ibid., p. 202.

33. See Niebuhr's, H. RichardChrist and Culture (New York: Harper, 1951), pp. 220229Google Scholar, for an excellent discussion of Maurice's understanding of Christ as the transformer of culture.

34. The Conflict of Good and Evil, p. 203.

35. This is the title of Lecture VI of Maurice's, The Friendship of Books and Other Lectures, 3rd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1873), pp. 123–55.Google Scholar

36. Maurice, F. D., Sermons on the Sabbath-Day, On the Character of the Warrior, and On the Interpretation of History (London: Parker, 1853), pp. 99125Google Scholar. See Lectures on the Apocalypse, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1885)Google Scholar, Lectures V, VI, and VIII for a longer exposition of Revelation, chapters 5–10.

37. Ibid., p. 101.

38. Ibid., p. 109.

39. Ibid., p. 119.

40. See Lectures on the Apocalypse, Lecture VIII.

41. Sermons on the Sabbath-Day, On the Character of the Warrior, and On the Interpretation of History, p. 123.

42. See Ibid., pp. 123–4.

43. The Lord's Prayer, Sermon III.

44. This is strenuously maintained in Dialogues IV and V of Dialogues between a Clergyman and a Layman on Family Worship (London: Macmillan, 1862).Google Scholar