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Significant Points of Comparison Between The Biblical Criticism of Thomas and Matthew Arnold

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Eugene L. Williamson Jr.
Eugene L. Williamson Jr.*
Affiliation:
University oe Alabama, University, Ala.
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Extract

This Paper had its origin in three main considerations: (1) my observation of the many references to Thomas Arnold's ideas and works in Matthew Arnold's familiar correspondence; (2) my recognition of many striking parallels in the Biblical criticism of the two men; and (3) my gradual realization that the great wealth of scholarship about the Arnolds contained no detailed attempt to indicate the precise nature of Matthew's indebtedness to his father's ideas about the Bible. The unlikeliness of any unique indebtedness is, of course, patent when one considers the wide diffusion of liberal religious ideas in mid-nineteenth-century England and, more particularly, when he remembers Matthew's expressions of interest on various occasions in the work of Spinoza, John Smith (the Cambridge Platonist), S. T. Coleridge, C. C. J. Bunsen, Renan, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, and Benjamin Jowett. Nevertheless, the inherent probability of at least a contributory influence, a predisposition to accept similar ideas from other sources, appeared to justify a comparative study of the criticism of the Arnolds.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 1961 , pp. 539 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1961

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References

Note 1 in page 539 William Robbins, The Ethical Idealism of Matthew Arnold (London, 1959), Ch. iii, “Major Formative Influences,” pp. 55–70. See also Merton A. Christensen, “Thomas Arnold's Debt to German Theologians: A Prelude to Literature and Dogma,” Modern Philology, lv (August 1957), 14–20, and Matthew Arnold's comments about Stanley and Jowett in “Dr. Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church,” Macmillan's Magazine, vii (February 1863), 327–336 and “The Bishop and the Philosopher,” Macmillan's Magazine, vii (January 1863), 241–256.

Note 2 in page 539 Vernon F. Storr, The Development of Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 1800–60 (London, 1913), Chs. iii-iv, vii, ix-x; G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (2d ed.; London, 1913), Chs. i-ix; L. E. Effiott-Binns, Religion in the Victorian Era (London, 1946), Chs. ii, vii-ix; Alfred William Benn, The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1906), Chs. iv, vii-viii; R. H. Murray, Science and Scientists in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1925), Chs. iii—v. I am indebted to the Southern Fellowships Fund and the Research Committee of the University of Alabama for assistance in completing portions of the research embodied in this paper.

Note 3 in page 539 Connop Thirlwall, Jr., Connop Thirlwall, Historian and Theologian (London, 1936), p. 29.

Note 4 in page 539 Apologia Pro Vita Sua, ed. Charles F. Harrold (New York, 1947), p. 30.

Note 5 in page 539 Storr, p. 2.

Note 6 in page 539 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold (4th ed.; London, 1845), II, 58, 60–61. This work is hereafter cited as Life.

Note 7 in page 540 Thomas Arnold, Sermons (London, 1845), iii, xvi.

Note 8 in page 540 R. E. Prothero, Letters and Verses of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (New York, 1895), p. 74, quoted Letters of Matthew Arnold to Arthur Hugh Clough, ed. Howard F. Lowry (London, 1932), p. 5.

Note 9 in page 540 Ernest Hartley Coleridge, John Duke Coleridge (London, 1904), II, 257.

Note 10 in page 540 Nineteenth Century Studies (New York, 1949), p. 264.

Note 11 in page 540 Works of Matthew Arnold, Edition de Luxe (London, 1904), XIV, 65. All subsequent references are to this edition.

Note 12 in page 540 Coleridge, i, 121.

Note 13 in page 541 Frances J. Woodward, The Doctor's Disciples (Cambridge, 1954), p. 25.

Note 14 in page 541 Sermons (4th ed.; London, 1845), II, 417.

Note 15 in page 541 Miscellaneous Works: With Nine Additional Essays Not Included In The English Collection (New York, 1845), p. 449. This work is hereafter cited as Miscellaneous Works (New York).

Note 16 in page 541 Sermons Chiefly On The Interpretation Of Scripture (3rd ed.; London, 1851), p. 178. This work is hereafter cited as Sermons on Interpretation.

Note 17 in page 541 Christian Life, Its Cotirse, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps. Sermons Preached Mostly In The Chapel of Rugby School (5th ed.; London, 1849), p. 220. This work is hereafter cited as Christian Life … Helps.

Note 18 in page 542 Christian Life … Helps, pp. 217–220.

Note 19 in page 542 Christian Life, Its Hopes, Its Fear, And Its Close. (5th ed.; London, 1849), p. 242.

Note 20 in page 542 Miscellaneous Works (New York), pp. 450–451.

Note 21 in page 542 Sermons Ott Interpretation, pp. 530–531.

Note 22 in page 543 Sermons, in, “Introduction,” passim.