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An Anglican nouvelle théologie: Eric Mascall on Christ and the Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2025

Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge Magdalene College, Cambridge, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

An article reviewing the work of Eric Mascall and suggesting that he is developing an Anglican nouvelle théologie. The importance of Mascall’s work on Christ and the Church is also explored.

Keywords

AnglicanChristChurchMascallNouvelle théologie
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , November 2024 , pp. 484 - 498
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust

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References

1 Mascall, E. L., He who is: a study in traditional theism (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1943).

2 See Mascall’s references to Gilson in He who is, pp. 30, 32, 35, 40, 47, 68, 85, 96.

3 Mascall, E. L., Existence and analogy: a sequel to He who is (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1949).

4 Mascall, E. L., Existence and analogy: a sequel to He who is, ed. Clinton Collister, with a foreword by Rowan Williams (Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2023).

5 See Mascall, Existence and Analogy, pp. 92–121, especially pp. 94–95.

6 See especially ‘God and the Creature’, Chapter Six of Existence and Analogy, pp. 122–57.

7 See in particular Chapter 7 of Existence and Analogy (‘Two Recent Discussions of Theism’), which discusses Austin Farrer’s Finite and Infinite (pp. 158–75) and Dorothy M. Emmet’s Nature of Metaphysical Thinking (pp. 175–81). See also references throughout the book to Farrer’s Finite and Infinite (pp. 79, 89, 92, 108).

8 de Lubac, Henri, Surnaturel (Paris: Aubier, 1946), cited in Mascall, Existence and Analogy, p. 185, Footnote 2.

9 de Lubac, Henri, Catholicisme. Les Aspects sociaux du dogme (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1938).

10 See, for example, Mascall’s frequent references to Catholicisme in Mascall, E. L., Christ, the Christian and the Church: a study of the incarnation and its consequences (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1946), pp. 112, 131, 137, 139, 143, 145, 146, 149, 151, 193, 201.

11 Gilson, Etienne, Introduction a l’etude de s. Augustin, Paris, Vrin 1929 (English translation by L.E.M. Lynch, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine, New York, Random House 1960).

12 Gilson, Étienne, Le Thomisme: Introduction au Système de saint Thomas d’Aquin (Paris: Vrin, 1919). In He Who Is (p. 203), Mascall references the third (1927) edition of Gilson’s book on Aquinas, along with the following English translation: Gilson, Étienne, The Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas, trsl. E. Bullough (Cambridge: Heffer, 2nd edition 1929).

13 Gilson, Étienne, Jean Duns Scot, introduction à ses positions fondamentales (Paris: Vrin, 1952).

14 Gilson, Étienne, La théologie mystique de saint Bernard (Paris: Vrin, 1934). In He who is (p. 203), Mascall references the following English translation: Gilson, Étienne, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard, trsl. A. H. C. Downes (London: Sheed and Ward, 1940).

15 See also, more broadly, Gilson, Étienne, La Philosophie au Moyen-Âge de Scot Érigène à Guillaume d’Occam (Paris: Payot, 1930), which Mascall references in He Who Is (p. 203).

16 Mascall, E. L., The openness of being: natural theology today (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1971).

17 See Mascall, The openness of being, pp. 59–74 (‘Transcendental Thomism – I’) and 75–90 (‘Transcendental Thomism – II’).

18 See especially Mascall, The openness of being, pp. 67–74 and 233–45; see also pp. 132, 172, 196.

19 Mascall, E. L., The importance of being human: some aspects of the Christian doctrine of man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959).

20 Mascall, E. L., Nature and supernature (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1976).

21 See Mascall, Existence and Analogy, pp. x, xviii, xix, 69, 89, 92-94, 108, 138, 158–75.

22 See Mascall, Existence and Analogy, pp. 79, 158–59, 171, 174–75, 181.

23 See Mascall, Nature and Supernature, pp. 79–80, quoting Farrer, Austin, ‘Thinking the Trinity’, in A Celebration of Faith, ed. Leslie Houlden (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970), pp. 72–73.

24 Mascall, Nature and Supernature, pp. 80–81.

25 Mascall, Nature and Supernature, p. 81.

26 See Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, p. 65: ‘First, then, the supernaturalisation which grace produces operates in the very substance of human nature, far beneath the level of observable behavior [sic], even if it ultimately produces effects on the observable level.’

27 See St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, II, 23, 11–14 (ed. and trsl. E. Allison Peers), The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church: translated from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C. D., and edited by E. Allison Peers, vol. 1 (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1934), pp. 481–83.

28 See Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, pp. 481–83.

29 See, for example, Mascall’s blend of the two in Grace and Glory (London: The Faith Press, 1961), pp. 38–39, 41–42, 47–48, 51, 78.

30 Mascall, E. L., Christ, the Christian and the Church: a study of the incarnation and its consequences (London etc.: Longmans, Green and Co., 1946).

31 Mascall, E. L., Theology and the Gospel of Christ: An Essay in Reorientation (London: SPCK, 1977).

32 Mascall, Existence and Analogy, p. 128; emphasis Mascall’s.

33 Mascall, E. L., Corpus Christi: Essays on the Church and the Eucharist (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1953).

34 Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 119–208.

35 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 122–25, 134, 202–07.

36 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 121, 133, 146, 202–07.

37 See Chapter 3 (‘The Existentialism of St. Thomas’) in Mascall, Existence and Analogy, pp. 44–64.

38 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 139–44.

39 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 144–51.

40 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 151–188.

41 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, p. 175.

42 See Mascall’s allusions to the influence of Bouyer on Tresmontant in Theology and the Gospel of Christ, p. 140.

43 See Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, pp. 91–108.

44 Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, p. 100.

45 Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, pp. 104–05.

46 See Mascall, Christ, the Christian and the Church, pp. 111–12, 131, 137, 139, 142–43, 145–46, 149, 151, 193, 201.

47 Mascall, Existence and Analogy, pp. 183–84.

48 de Lubac, Henri, ‘Sur la philosophie chrétienne’, Nouvelle Revue théologique 63.3 (March 1936), pp. 225–253.

49 de Lubac, Henri, ‘On Christian Philosophy’, trsl. Sharon Mollerus and Susan Clements, Communio: International Catholic Review 19.3 (Fall 1992), pp. 478–506.

50 See, for example, Existence and Analogy, pp. 148–54.

51 See, for example, Mascall, Nature and Supernature, pp. 45–47.

52 See, for example, Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. 197–202.

53 Mascall, E. L., Grace and Glory (London: The Faith Press, 1961).

54 See, in particular, Chapter 4 (‘We shall love’) in Mascall, Grace and Glory, pp. 45–62.

55 See Mascall, Theology and the Gospel of Christ, pp. xiii–xv, 5–6, 211.

56 See Mascall, Christ, the Christian and the Church, pp. viii, 51, 92, 174, 177–78, 189, 194, 198–99.

57 See Mascall, The Importance of Being Human, pp. 28, 96–97.

58 See Mascall’s repeated references to Rahner in The Openness of Being, especially pp. 67–74, 233–40 and 244–45; see also pp. 13, 28, 46, 48, 100–01, 132, 144, 152, 172, 181, 196.