Full Text for The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago (Text)

<1rnurnrbta mQtnlngtral 6tutll1y Continuing LEHRE UND VVEHRE MAGAZIN FUER EV.-LUTH. HOMlLETlK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. IV July, 1933 No.7 CONTENTS Page The Oxford ltovement a Hundred Years Ago. W. Arndt ••• 481 Wie ist denen zu begegnen, die Wundergaben, besondera neue OBenbarungen, vorgeben. o. Luebke. • . . • . • .. ••• 497 Objective Justification. Th. EDlelder. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 507 Kein Modus Agendi vor der Bekehrung. J. T. Mueller •••• , li17 Die Rauptschriften Luthers in chronologischer Reihenfolge &26 Dispositionen ueber die altkirohliche Epistelreihe ....... &28 Miscellanea ........................................ &36 Theological Observer. - Xirchlioh-Zeitgeschichtliches .... 539 Book Review. - Literatur ........................... 5&3 Ein Predlpi- __ nlellt alIein "'''"'''', aIao da3I er die 8chale untenreUe. wte sle reehte Obriatea. lO11en ~in. IOndem auell daneben de Woelten tile',..".. daa ale die 8chale nlcht aJlI!'eifeD und mit falecher Lehre ftrfueh... und Irrtum ein· fuehren. - Lvew. Eo ist kein DiDI. das die Leate mehr bei der Klrche behaelt denn die gute Predigt. - ApoIoSl~, Are. ~. If the trumpet gift an UIlC!enain 1IOIIIId, who sball prepare himself to the battle f 1 0.,.. ~,8. Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States CONCOBD:rA. PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo. Concordia Theological Monthly VOL. IV JULY, 1933 No.7 The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago. The Anglican Ohurch and its daughter, the Protestant Episcopal Ohurch of the United States, are with much enthusiasm observing this year the centennial of what is known as the Oxford Movement, or T ractarianism. In many of their congregations undoubtedly the date selected for commemorative exercises is July 14 ; for Oardinal Newman, one of the chief promoters of the movement, writes in his famous Apologia pro Fita Stta: "The following Sunday, July 14, Mr. Keble preached the assize sermon in the university pulpit. It was published under the title of 'National Apostasy.' I have ever con- sidered and kept the day as the start of the religious movement of 1833." (Edition of Longmans, Green & 00., p. 35.) On a grand scale American Episcopalians will observe the anniversary this fall by hold- ing what they term "The American Cen.tenary Oongress," which is to meet in Philadelphia October 22-26. The Bishop of Pennsylvania, the Right Reverend Fi'ancis M. Taitt, so a correspondent of the Living Chu?'ch informs us, has been appointed honorary president by the Oentenary Oommittee, the mayor of Philadelphia will serve as one of its members, and other prominent men are lending a hand. As a result we shall hear much of the old Oxford Movement this summer, and though there is no dearth of books and articles on this subject, a new review of its beginning, its salient features and lessons, will not be amiss. In passing I cannot suppress the remark that old Oxford, far-famed for its beauty and its great university, has a remarkable way of startling the world every hundred years with a special religious offering. Two hundred years ago Methodism was born there through the endeavors of the Wesleys and '\Vhitefield; one hundred years ago the movement we are proposing to consider was launched there, and now, after the lapse of another century, we again have an Oxford Movement on our hands, usually referred to as Buchmanism. 31 482 The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago. I. To understand the Tractarian Movement of 1833, one must be somewhat aClluainted wi.th religious conditions which at that time obtained in the Ohurch of England. Perhaps no one has given a more brilliant description of them than Dean Ohurch in his monograph The Oxford "Movement 1833-1845, from which I shall quote some particularly illnminating sentences. This writer, I ought to add, not only was an Oxford man himself, but as an undergraduate when the movement set in was personally acquainted with most of its leaders and, generally speaking, in sympathy with the views they advocated. "At the end of the first quarter of the ccntury, say about 1825-30, two characteristic forms of Ohurch of England Ohristianity were popularly recognized. One inherited the traditions of a learned and sober Anglicanism, claiming as the authorities for its theology the great line of English divines from Hooker to Waterland, ... preach- ing, without passion or excitement, scholal'like, careful, wise, often vigorously l'easoned discourses on the capital points of faith and morals ana exhibiting in iIS adherents, who W"Te many and im1l01t meant as a companion of the Book of Common Prayer, not at all a polemical work and yet breathing in its poetry a deep protest against Liberalism. His contemporaries and acquain- tances speak of him as a person of sincere piety and great earnestness. The assize, or judgment, sermon of his, according to Dean Church, «was a call to face in the earnest the changed state of things, full of immediate and pressing danger; to consider how it was to be met by Christians and churchmen and to watch motives and tempers." In view of what Parliament was contemplating doing in Ireland, he pleaded with all whom his voice could reach to (;ome tc the :eese _.2 of the "Apostolic" Church. I shall transcribe a few of his words: "Surely it will be no unworthy principle if any man is more circum- spect in his behavior, more watchful and fearful of himself, more earnest in his petitions for spiritual aid, from a dread of disparaging the holy name of the English Church in her hour of peril by his own personal fault and negligence. . .. These cautions [against neglect of ordinary duties] being duly observed, I do not see how any person can devote himself too entirely to the cause of the Apostolic Church in these realms. There may be, as far as he knows, but a very few to sympathize with him. . .. But if he be con- sistent, ... he is calmly, soberly, demonstrably, sure that sooner or later his will be the winning side and that the victory will be com- plete, universal, eternal." When the sermon was printed and the foreword had to be drafted, the expected had come to pass - through amalgamation ten bishoprics Imd been eliminated in Irelal1d, and Keble, filled with indignation, entitled his sermon, as he now pub- lished it, "National Apostasy" and accused Parliament of having usurped the authority of the bishops and of having degraded the "Apostolic" Church to the status of "one sect among many," while he at the same time upbraided the whole nation with calm con- nivance at what had been perpetrated. His strong language l'eceived particularly heal'ty endorsement from two friends, who, like him, were Oriel men of Oxford, J. H. Newman and R. H. Froude. The latter died in 1836; and though his influence at the beginning of the movement was very considerable, his ill health and early death kept hin; from attaining the prominence to which he seemed destined. John Henry Newman (1801-90) is by far the best-known of all the actors in this drama, and in his 486 The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago. Apologia, written when in 1864 Char-les Kingsley had attacked his ver-acity, gave the world a much-admired account of the origin and progress of the Tractarian Movement. That he was a man of great learning and of splendid ability is conceded even by his opponents. \\Then he in 1845 joined the Roman Catholic Ohurch, a step which was not unexpected by his friends, England was shocked. His case will always stand in history as a warning to all who think that error can be guarded against, or vanquished, simply by erudition and in- tellectual greatness. "His silence and his speech, his plain words and dark sayings, his irony and sarcasm, his pride and his humility, his fierceness and his gentleness, his friendships and his antipathies, his isolation in the midst of devoted fr-iends, his power to attract and to repel, made him always and to all an enigma of the greatest interest." (Oornish, Hist01'Y of the Ohurch of England, p. 219 f.) Since the movement is likewise known as Puseyism, it will strike the uninformed as str-ange that Pusey has not as yet been mentioned. The explanation is that he did not participate in the work of Keble, Froude, and Newman till the end of 1833. When he did join hands with them, they felt their cause had gained immensely. "It has been said that to the Oxford Movement Newman gave genius, Pusey learning, and Keble char-acter-." (Com ish, op. cit., p.216.) He was professor of Oriental languages at Oxford and was universally re- spected not only for the vast stores of knowledge which he, by dint of indefatigable industry, had acquirnd, but for hiR benefactions and Ohristian sincerity. To conservative scholars all over the world he has permanently endeared himself by his commentaries on Old Testa- ment books, especially the one on Daniel, in which he, the attacks of renowned scholars notwithstanding, firmly adheres to the inspired character of these writings and brilliantly defends their divine origin. Newman pays him this remarkable tribute: "Ther-e was henceforth a man who could be the head and center of the zealous people in every part of the country who were adopting the new opinions; and not only so, but there was one who furnished the movement with a front to the world and gained for it a recognition from other parties in the university. . .. He was a man of large designs; he had a hopeful, sanguine mind; he had no fear of others; he was haunted by no intellectual perplexities." (Apol., p.61.) At the next step in the development a few more eminent men identified with the movement come before us, three clergymen, Hugh Rose, William Palmer, and Arthur Perceval. Rose occupied a prom- inent position on account of his editorship of the British Magazine and his close connections with Cambridge University. Dean Ohurch says of him: ".Ai:, far as could be seen at the time, he was the most accomplished divine and teacher in the English Church." (Gp. cit., p.96.) In his case, too, failing health and an early death (January, The Oxford Movement a Hundred Years Ago. 487 1839) operated somewhat to make his share in the Oxford Movement less prominent than that of others. Palmer was an Oxford scholar, while Perceval was an energetic pastor, who subsequently got out a catechism called Churchman's ~lvIanual, which at the time created not a little stir. These three men were entirely in sympathy with Keble's position and, joined by Froude, met July 25-29, 1833, at the home of Rose at Hadleigh to decide on some course of action. N ew- man and Keble, though of course invited, were not present, having "no confidence in moetings or co=ittees," as Palmer some years later put it. It was agreed at the conference "that combined action was desirable as well as the circulation of publications on ecclesiastical subjects. They did not, however, formulate any specific plan of action or come to a clear understanding among themselves." (Oornish, op. cit., p.232.) It was proposed to start an association of "friends of the Ohurch." The plan soon was tried; but when it was brought to the attention of larger circles, it did not meet with general favor, and the results were negligible. A more effective measure, which in- dircei;ly likewise can be traced back to the Hadleigh meeting, was an address to the Archbishop of Oanterbury drawn up by Palmer, which was presented early in 1834 and bore the signatures of seven thousand clergymen - certainly not a manifestation to be made light of by anybody. One of the advocates of the address enthusiasti- cally described it as "the greatest victory that has been achieved since the Battle of Waterloo." (Oornish, op. cit., p. 236.) The address was an expression of :firm belief in the divine right of bishops and a pledge to support the episcopate in whatever efforts it might put forth to strengthen the Ohurch. A similar address was presented to the archbishop a few months lator in the name of the laity, dis- playing the signatures of 230,000 heads of families. Weare told that these two documents, providing a means of self-assertion to the conservative spirit still alive in large sections of the Anglican com- munion, marked the turning-point in the outward situation of the Ohurch. "There can be little doubt that as regards the external posi- tion of the Ohurch in the country, this agitation was a success. It rallied the courage of churchmen and showed that they were stronger and more resolute than their enemIes thought." (OhUTch, op. cit., p.107.) III. But a still m,6-;:e far-reaching result of the Hadleigh conference was the public;tl~n of tracts in which the views of the originators of the Oxfor