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Gore and Theological Synthesis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
While Gore continued to exert a profound influence on Anglican theology until very recent times, regarded in an ecumenical perspective he may well seem a rather parochial figure. It is my belief, however, that Gore's work offers a useful and relevant object-lesson in theological construction. He is often portrayed as an inflexible dogmatist. He had the Tractarian instinct for dogma, but he was no mere dogmatist. One's first impression, it is true, is of a monolithic figure. His presence has been described as ‘numinous’; his thought appears as a massive and imposing unity. But a closer examination of his writings reveals a synthesis in which disparate elements were held together by sheer prophetic force of mind. Although Gore has received quite a lot of discussion, treatments of his life and thought have not always adequately recognised the elements of paradox in them both. In fact this lies very near the surface and left his friends frustrated and his critics exasperated.
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References
page 461 note 1 Davies, J. Conway, ‘Charles Gore: Note for a Psychological Study’, Theology (1932), 259f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 461 note 2 This is broadly true of the biography by Prestige, G. L., Charles Gore, (1935)Google Scholar, and is a weakness in Carpenter, James, Gore: a Study in Liberal Catholic Thought, (1960)Google Scholar, which while indispensable to students of Gore, does not really tackle the question of the coherence of his thought. The paradoxical nature of Gore's writing is well brought out in Ramsey, A. M., From Gore to Temple, (1960);Google ScholarCharles Gore and Anglican Theology (1955).
page 461 note 3 See Hubbard, H. E., ‘Charles Gore’, Church Quarterly Review (1954), 22.Google Scholar
page 461 note 4 Retrospect of an Unimportant Life, I (1941), 53.
page 461 note 5 See Carpenter, 7ff.
page 462 note 1 Henson, 54.
page 462 note 2 Prestige, 399.
page 462 note 3 Prestige, , The Soul of a Prophet, 1948, 10ff;Google ScholarMansbridge, A., E. S. Talbot and Charles Gore (1935), 88ff.Google Scholar
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page 462 note 5 See Carpenter, S. C. in Pillars of the English Church (1934), 69.Google Scholar
page 463 note 1 Dominant Ideas and Corrective Principles (1918), 94; cf. The Basis of Anglican Fellowship (1914), 4f.
page 463 note 2 The Reconstruction of Belief (1926), viii; The Mission of the Church, (1892), 36f.
page 464 note 1 The Spirit of Anglicanism (1965), 312f, & ad lib.
page 464 note 2 Anglicanism (1935), xxxi.
page 464 note 3 Reconstruction, viif. For ethos as a key concept in Tractarian thought see Baker, W. J., ‘Hurrell Froude and the Reformers’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1970), 243–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 465 note 1 Prestige, ibid., 15, 69.
page 465 note 2 The Test of Theological and Ecclesiastical Development (1901), 22.
page 465 note 3 The Philosophy of the Good Life (1930), 147, 201, 310; Reconstruction, 954; Sermon onthe Mount (1904 edn), 5f.
page 465 note 4 viii in XVI edn (1904).
page 465 note 5 Philosophy of the Good Life, 299ff.
page 466 note 1 See Orders and Unity (1909), 69; Jesus of Nazareth (1929), 249f; The Religion of the Church (1916), 1; Catholicism and Roman Catholicism (1923), 8ff.
page 466 note 2 Can We Then Believe? (1926), 122ff.
page 466 note 3 The New Theology and the Old Religion (1907), 159f.
page 466 note 4 Reconstruction, 972; Catholicism etc, 40.
page 466 note 5 See Mascall, E. L., The Eucharistic Theology of Charles Gore, Corpus Christi (1953 and 1965);Google ScholarGore, , The Body of Christ (1901).Google Scholar
page 466 note 6 The Church and the Ministry, II edn (1889), 40.
page 467 note 1 James Carpenter, 222.
page 467 note 2 Henson, Retrospect, I, 208.
page 467 note 3 Henson, Letters (1950), 69.
page 467 note 4 ibid., 68
page 467 note 5 Reconstruction, vi.
page 467 note 6 Ramsey, From Gore to Temple, 13.
page 467 note 7 Prestige, The Soul of a Prophet, 14.
page 468 note 1 Roman Catholic Claims, VII edn (1900), vii.
page 468 note 2 ibid., 6ff; cf. Catholicism etc., 19ff.
page 468 note 3 The Basis of Anglican Fellowship, 33.
page 468 note 4 For the Tractarians and the Reformation see Baker, ibid. Gore sometimes quotes from Calvin's Institutes but it is doubtful whether he was much acquainted with Luther's writings at first hand. Cf. also Orders and Unity, 174ff, 184ff, 191ff.
page 468 note 5 Carpenter, 202.
page 469 note 1 The Religion of the Church, 27, is an outstanding example.
page 469 note 2 St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, II edn (1907), I, 170f.
page 469 note 3 Prestige, Charles Gore, 132.
page 469 note 4 See The Church and the Ministry, 84ff.
page 469 note 5 Dissertation on the Christian Ministry, ad fin. But Gore did not accept Lightfoot's interpretation of the origins of episcopacy.
page 469 note 6 Maurice, , The Kingdom of Christ (1958 edn), II, 145f.Google Scholar It may be significant that Maurice was one of the very few Anglicans to understand Luther.
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page 470 note 1 From Gore to Temple, 14.
page 470 note 2 See his Systematic Theology, III, British edn (1964), 221ff, 252ff, & ad lib.
page 470 note 3 F. A. Iremonger, William Temple (1948), 512.
page 470 note 4 The Anglo-Catholic Movement Today (1925), ch. 3.
page 471 note 1 From Gore to Temple, 7.
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page 471 note 4 239.
page 471 note 5 The New Theology and the Old Religion, 100–7.
page 472 note 1 Mascall, , Christ, the Christian and the Church, (1946), vi;Google Scholar Smedes, The Incarnation: Trends in Modern Anglican Thought, Kampen, (1953), 3ff; Ramsey, ibid., 35.
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page 472 note 3 Outspoken Essays, I (1920), 120.
page 473 note 1 The Modem Churchman, (1914), 67.
page 473 note 2 ibid., (1921), 356; cf. (1921), 469; (1932), 583.
page 473 note 3 40.
page 473 note 4 ‘Bishop Gore and Liberal Catholicism’, Essays in Liberality (1957), 144ff.
page 473 note 5 These essentials were for Gore ‘literal fact’; see The Basis of Anglican Fellowship, 20.
page 474 note 1 Lux Mundi, 260; cf. The Basis of Anglican Fellowship, 18f.
page 474 note 2 Prestige, ibid., 124.
page 474 note 3 The Clergy and the Creeds (1887), 27f.
page 474 note 4 See The Mission of the Church, 44ff; Reconstruction, 872.
page 475 note 1 See The Body of Christ, 224f.
page 475 note 2 Carpenter, 136.
page 475 note 3 Gwatkin, 4.
page 475 note 4 ibid., 7.
page 475 note 5 243ff.
page 476 note 2 The Divinity of Jesus Christ (1964 edn), 120.