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The Spiritual Pilgrimage of the Rev. R. J. Campbell*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Keith Robbins
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Extract

The death of Canon R.J. Campbell on 1 March 1956 did not cause a national stir. There was an obituary the following day in The Times and some comment on subsequent days from friends and associates, but little to indicate that fifty years earlier he had been a substantial public figure. One obscure diarist, who had known Campbell as a young man, felt that ‘the grudging admission…of some academic distinction’ was an inadequate summary of Campbell's life and work. In part, of course, having outlived most of his contemporaries, Campbell was paying the penalty for his longevity. More important, however, was the fact that for decades he had consciously avoided the limelight. ‘No man’ he had written to the novelist Margaret Lane in December 1947 ‘could more carefully avoid publicity than I have done for a generation’. From 1930 to 1946 he had been a residentiary canon and then chancellor of Chichester and before that served as vicar of Holy Trinity, Brighton for six years. It would appear that he possessed an eminently Anglican pedigree. In May 1903, however, a frail, ascetic-looking, prematurely white-haired Campbell had commenced his ministry at the City Temple, the leading Congregational church in London. W. T. Stead's Review of Reviews looked forward to the ‘Renascence of Nonconformity’ under the leadership of this thirty-five-year-old young man. Over seven thousand people attended the services on his first Sunday. Picture postcards of Campbell were soon on sale and later admirers could purchase the R. J. Campbell Birthday Book containing his ‘favourite poetical quotations, portrait and autograph’. There was even A Rosary from the City Temple, described as being threaded from the writings and sermons of R. J. Campbell. The publicity which attended his arrival in London rarely left him for the next dozen years. In September 1915, rumours of Campbell's intention to resign the pastorate and speculation about his subsequent course were thought of sufficient interest to reach the news columns of The Times. His resignation merited a leader in the newspaper and, following his reception into the Church of England in early October, the comments of prominent religious leaders were printed. In 1916 Campbell published A Spiritual Pilgrimage, and a reconsideration of this volume throws interesting light on the cross-currents of Edwardian religious life.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 261 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 Mr A. Sainsbury kindly communicated his diary entry for 3 March 1956 to the author.

2 The Times, 7 March 1956.

3 Review of Reviews, 15 May 1903.

4 The Times, 13 October 1915.

5 The late Miss Muriel Lloyd Thomas kindly sent me this information.

6 Hensley Henson Diary, xx. 310 (Dean and Chapter Library, Durham). The entry is for 14 October 1916. I am grateful to Dr Brian Harrison for drawing my attention to this comment and to the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral for permission to publish.

7 Unless otherwise stated, the personal information in what follows is derived from Campbell, R. J., A Spiritual Pilgrimage, London 1916Google Scholar. Campbell's descendants have informed me that all his papers were destroyed on his death.

8 Who was Who, 1951-1960, London 1961, 178.Google Scholar

9 I am indebted to Mr H. J. R. Wing, the assistant librarian at Christ Church for confirmation of the details of Campbell's academic career.

10 Selbie, W. B., The Life of Charles Silvester Home, London 1920, 156.Google Scholar

11 Peel, A. and Marriott, J. A. R., Robert Forman Horton, London 1937, 310.Google Scholar

12 , Peel and , Marriott, Horton, 312.Google Scholar

13 C. Silvester Home: In Memoriam, London 1914, 23–4.Google Scholar

14 Cited in Bateman, C. T., R.J. Campbell, M.A., Pastor ojthe City Temple, London 1903, 57Google Scholar.

15 The Atonement in Modem Religious Thought: A Theological Symposium, London 1900Google Scholar; Campbell, R. J., A Faith for Today: Suggestions towards a System of Christian Belief, London 1900, 3Google Scholar; for Unitarian criticism see Armstrong, R. A., The Rev. R. J. Campbell on the Trinity, London1900.Google Scholar

16 Matthew, H. C. G., The Liberal Imperialists, Oxford 1973, 49Google Scholar. Matthew wrongly describes Campbell as a Methodist. Selbie (above n. 10), 127; R. J. Campbell to R. W. Perks, 10 July 1902 (Perks MS). I am indebted to Sir Malcolm Perks for access to these papers.

17 Cited in Wilkinson, A. H., Rev. R.J. Campbell: The Man and his Message, London 1907, 26–8Google Scholar.

18 Gardiner, A. G., Prophets, Priests and Kings, London 1914, 241.Google Scholar

19 Newton, J. F., Preaching in London, London 1922, 35–6.Google Scholar

20 Bateman (above n. 14), 94-5. The young W. R. Matthews was another listener to be greatly impressed by Campbell's sermons.Matthews, W. R., Memories and Meanings, London 1969, 56Google Scholar.

21 Boulton, J. T., ed., Lawrence in Love: Letters to Louise Burrows, Nottingham 1968, 140.Google Scholar

22 Koss, S., Nonconformity in Modem British Politics, London 1975, 50.Google Scholar

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24 Campbell, R. J., City Temple Sermons, London 1903, 11.Google Scholar

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26 Campbell, R. J., The Song of Ages, London 1905, 35.Google Scholar

27 Campbell, R. J., Some Signs of the Times, London 1903.Google Scholar

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29 Campbell, R. J., Sermon on Passive Resistance, London 1903.Google Scholar

30 R. W. Perks to Lord Rosebery, 1 April and 13 April 1904, Rosebery MS., National Library of Scotland. I am indebted to the Rev. M. Edwards for this reference.

31 ‘I see our old friend Campbell has said this’, wrote Perks to Rosebery on 2a April 1904, ‘but it will make his congregation furious’. Rosebery MS.

32 , Selbie, Home, 192.Google Scholar

33 Porritt, A., The Best I Remember, London 1922, 121.Google Scholar

34 British Weekly, 17 January 1907; Drummond, H., The New Evangelism and other Papers, London 1899Google Scholar. For a general discussion see Davies, H., Worship and Theology in England The Ecumenical Century, 1900-1965, London 1965, 125–35Google Scholar; Jones, R. T., Congregationalism in England, 1662-1962, London 1962, 344–54Google Scholar; Grant, J. W., Free Churchmanship in England, 1870-1940, London, n.d., 132–42Google Scholar; Lawton, J. S., Conflict in Christology. A Study of British and American Christology, 1889-1914, London 1947Google Scholar; George, E. A., Seventeenth Century Men of Latitude: Forerunners of the New Theology, London 1909Google Scholar, is an attempt to establish an intellectual pedigree for the movement.

35 Campbell, R. J., The New Theology, London 1907, 5Google Scholar. A German translation, Die neue Theologie, was published in Jena in 1910. I hope to examine The New Theology and its reception at greater length elsewhere.

36 Ibid., 9.

37 Ibid., 11.

38 Ibid., 201-2.

39 Ibid., 256.

40 Ibid., 8.

41 Campbell, R. J., Christianity and the Social Order, London 1907, 19.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., 54.

43 Ibid., 85.

44 Ibid., 149-50.

45 Jones, P. d'A., The Christian Socialist Revival, 1877-1914, Princeton 1968, 422n.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 R. J. Campbell to J. R. MacDonald, 22 June 1907, Labour Party General Correspondence 16/1 77 (Transport House, Smith Square, London). I owe this reference to Dr. K. O. Morgan.

47 The Times, 4 March 1908.

48 Orchard, W. E., From Faith to Faith, London 1933, 87.Google Scholar

49 Brockway, F., Inside the Left: Thirty Years of Platform, Press, Prison and Parliament, London 1947. 16.Google Scholar

50 Campbell, R. J., The New Theology, Preface to the Popular Edition, London 1909, viii.Google Scholar

51 The Times, 12 10 1909.Google Scholar

52 G. Tyrrell to A. L. Lilley, May 1909, Lilley MS., Library of the University of St. Andrews; Petre, M. D., Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell, ii, London 1912, 398–9Google Scholar.

53 The late Professor C. H. Dodd to the author, 15 January 1971.

54 Gore, C., The New Theology and the Old Religion, London 1907.Google Scholar

55 The late Sir Frank Willis to the author, 26 March 1971; Campbell, R. J., With our Troops in France, London 1916Google Scholar.

56 The Times, 24 September 1915.

57 The late Lord Sorensen to the author, 7 December 1970.

58 Campbell, R.J., The War and the Soul, London 1916Google Scholar; Words of Comfort, London 1917Google Scholar; A Letter to an American Friend, London 1918Google Scholar.