Alan Sell explores the lives and ideas of four unjustly neglected Anglican philosophers: W. G. De Burgh (1866-1943); W. R. Matthews (1881-1973); 0. C. Quick (1885-1944); H. A. Hodges (1905-1976). This study fills an important gap in the history of twentieth-century philosophical and theological thought. Sell argues that these writers covered a wide range of philosophical topics in an illuminating way, and that a comparison of their respective standpoints and methods is instructive from the point of view of the viability or otherwise of Christian philosophizing. He discusses the challenges these four philosophical Anglicans issued to certain important trends in the philosophy and theology of their day, and argues that some of them are of continuing relevance.

The history of the moral argument for the existence of God is a fascinating tale. Like any good story, it is full of twists and unexpected turns, compelling conflicts, memorable and idiosyncratic characters, both central and ancillary players. The narrative is as labyrinthine and circuitous as it is linear, its point yet to be fully seen, and its ending yet to be written. What remains certain is the importance of telling it. The resources of history offer a refresher course, a teachable moment, a cautionary tale about the need to avoid making sacrosanct the trends of the times, and an often sobering lesson in why reigning assumptions may need to be rejected. This book lets the argument's advocates, many long dead, come alive again and speak for themselves. A historical study of the moral argument is a reminder that classical philosophers were unafraid to ask and explore the big questions of faith, hope, and love; of truth, goodness, and beauty; of God, freedom, and immortality. It gives students and scholars alike the chance to drill down into their ideas, contexts, and arguments. Only by a careful study of its history can we come to see its richness and the range of resources it offers.

This book offers a detailed analysis of one of the key episodes of twentieth-century ecumenism, focusing on the efforts made to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain in the years since the First World War. Drawing on newly available archives as well as on a broad range of historical, theological, and liturgical expertise, the contributions explore what was attempted, why success proved elusive, and how the quest for unity was reconfigured into the twenty-first century. The volume sets contemporary ecumenical ambitions in historical context, explains the origins, course, and aftermath of the Anglican–Methodist ‘Conversations’ of 1955–72, retrieves their enduring global legacy, and explores the fraught nature of the ecumenical quest. It will be of key interest to scholars with an interest in ecumenism, Methodist studies, and church history.

For three centuries following the Reformation the Church of Ireland was the 'Established Church' (the state Church) of the country. This status was removed by the Irish Church Act of 1869 as part of Prime Minister Gladstone's policy to meet the grievances of Irish nationalists and thereby win their support for the Union with Great Britain, while at the same time addressing the resentment of other Churches who objected to the privileged position enjoyed by an Established Church that could claim the loyalty of less than 12% of the population. To mark the 150th Anniversary of Disestablishment, a development of important constitutional significance, the publication of this present collection of new essays, introduced by The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, tells the story of major aspects of the life of the Church in the past half century - a period of remarkable societal, political and ecclesial change including, inter alia yet notably, the ordination of women to the three orders of ordained ministry within the Church of Ireland. The volume includes a diverse range of authorial voices from within the Church of Ireland 'fold' and without it, both clerical and lay; some essays are scholarly, yet in some cases conversational, while others take a historical perspective or are highly contextual and forward-looking.

Unwilling on conscientious grounds to submit to the religious tests imposed by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the English and Welsh Dissenters of the second half of the seventeenth century established academies in which their young men, many of them destined for the ministry, might receive a higher education. From the eighteenth century onwards, theological colleges devoted exclusively to ministerial education were founded, while in Scotland historically, and in England and Wales over the past 120 years, freestanding university faculties of divinity/theology have provided theological education to ordinands and others. These diverse educational contexts are all represented in this collection of papers, but the focus is upon those who taught in them: Caleb Ashworth (Daventry Academy); John Oman (Westminster [Presbyterian] College Cambridge); N. H. G. Robinson (University of St. Andrews); Geoffrey F. Nuttall (New [Congregational] College, London); T. W. Manson (University of Manchester); Owen Evans (University of Manchester and Hartley Victoria Methodist College)--the lone Methodist scholar discussed here; and W. Gordon Robinson and J. H. Eric Hull (University of Manchester and Lancashire Independent College). Between them these scholars covered the core disciplines of theological education: biblical studies, ecclesiastical history, philosophy, doctrine, and systematic theology.

Costly Communion: Ecumenical Initiative and Sacramental Strife in the Anglican Communion seeks to engage with Anglicanism’s theological responses to the onset of the twilight of empire and to explore the diversity of Anglican sacramental and ecumenical controversies during the twentieth century. From sacramental initiation and the doctrine of Eucharistic sacrifice to church order and the historic episcopate, Costly Communion offers insights into Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical attempts to resolve the divisions provoked by the impact of the Oxford Movement from the 1830s. In its engagement with sub-Saharan African contextualization of the Anglican, moreover, Costly Communion analyses the unanticipated threat that Anglican diversity now poses for the unity of the Anglican Communion. Contributors are: Jeff Boldt, Jeremy Bonner, Hugh Bowron, Mark Chapman, Colin Buchanan, Ken Farrimond, Joseph Galgalo, Benjamin Guyer, Charlotte Methuen, Thomas Mhuriro, Esther Mombo, Zablon Nthamburi, Kevin Ward.

The Italian author Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) occupied a radical position among philosophers of the first half of the twentieth century. He tried in earnest to revolutionize idealist theory, developing a doctrine that retained the idealist conception of the thinking subject as the centre and source of any intelligible reality, while eschewing many of the unwarranted abstractions that had pervaded earlier varieties of idealism and led their adherents astray. Given his great prominence during his lifetime, it is perhaps remarkable that Gentile is so little discussed, and even then so poorly understood, in the English-speaking world. Few of his works have ever been translated into English, and these represent only a fraction of his great corpus and the many topics discussed therein. This neglect is partly explained by his close association with the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party), of which he remained a loyal member and supporter between 1923 and his assassination in 1944. The volume comprises eleven essays. Seven of these are new pieces written especially for Thought Thinking, and are intended both to contribute to ongoing debates about Gentile's philosophy and to indicate just a few of its many aspects that continue to draw the attention of philosophers, political theorists and intellectual historians. These are supplemented by new English translations of four of Gentile's shorter works, selected to offer some direct insight into his ideas and style of writing.