Eric Lionel Mascall (1905–1993) was a leading theologian and priest in the

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholicism, Catholic heritage (especially pre-English Reformation, Reformation roots) and identity of the Church of England and various churches within Anglicanism. Anglo-Ca ...

tradition of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. He was a philosophical exponent of the

Thomist Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Thomas's disputed questions ...

tradition and was Professor of Historical Theology at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

(in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

). His name was styled as E. L. Mascall in most of his writings. Mascall was for many years one of the major figures in British theology and well respected on the Continent and in North America. He authored more than 20 books, in which he expounded Anglican theology in its most Catholic of forms. Mascall was arguably the most influential in a group of like-minded theologians, most of whom had predeceased him –

Austin Farrer Austin Marsden Farrer (1 October 1904 – 29 December 1968) was an English Anglican philosopher, theologian, and biblical scholar. His activity in philosophy, theology, and spirituality led many to consider him one of the greatest figures of 20t ...

Gregory Dix George Eglinton Alston Dix (4 October 1901 – 12 May 1952), known as Gregory Dix, was a British monk and priest of Nashdom Abbey, an Anglican Benedictine community. He was a noted liturgical scholar whose work had particular influence on th ...

, Lionel Thornton and

Gabriel Hebert Arthur Gabriel Hebert (1886–1963) was an English monk of Kelham, Nottinghamshire (more strictly a member of the Society of the Sacred Mission), and a proponent within Anglicanism of the ideas of the Liturgical Movement. Hebert was very mu ...

Life

Born in London on 12 December 1905, Eric Mascall was the son of John Mascall and his wife Susan. He was educated at

Latymer Upper School Latymer Upper School is a public school in Hammersmith, London, England, on King Street. It derives from a charity school, and is part of the same 1624 Latymer Foundation, from a bequest by the English legal official Edward Latymer. There ...

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

. In 1931 he entered

Ely Theological College Ely Theological College was a college in Ely, Cambridgeshire, for training clergy in the Church of England. Founded in 1876 by James Woodford, Anglican Bishop of Ely, the college had a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition. Ely's "ritualistic" ( ...

and was ordained in the

in 1933. After a period as a schoolmaster at

Bablake School Bablake School is a secondary school, secondary co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school located in Coventry, England. It was founded in 1344 by Isabella of France, widow of Edward II of England, Edward II, maki ...

, Coventry, Mascall was ordained priest in 1933 at

Southwark Cathedral Southwark Cathedral ( ), formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, is a Church of England cathedral in Southwark, London, near the south bank of the River Thames and close to London Bridge. It is the mother c ...

, serving his first

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

at St Andrew's,

Stockwell Stockwell is a district located in South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. It is situated south of Charing Cross. History The name Stockwell is likely to have originated from a local well, with "stoc" being Old Englis ...

. In 1935 he crossed the river to

St Matthew's, Westminster St Matthew's Church, Westminster, is an Church of England, Anglican church in City of Westminster, Westminster, London. Located in the heart of the capital, close to the Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Church Ho ...

in the

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames, covering and all or part of 17 London boroughs. This corresponds almost exactly to the historic county of ...

. Subsequently, he taught theology at

Lincoln Theological College Lincoln Theological College was a Church of England theological college in Lincoln. History Founded by Edward White Benson, when he was chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, the college opened on 25 January 1874. It was also known as ''Scholae Cance ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. He joined the

Oratory of the Good Shepherd The Oratory of the Good Shepherd (OGS) is a dispersed international religious community, within the Anglican Communion. Members of the oratory are bound together by a common rule and discipline, which requires consecrated celibacy, and are strength ...

in 1938. In 1962 he became Professor of Historical Theology at

and followed this appointment by a period as

canon theologian Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of ...

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. His ...

. He retired in 1973 and continued to live in the clergy house of

St Mary's, Bourne Street St Mary's, Bourne Street, is an Anglican church on Bourne Street near Sloane Square in London. It was built 'quickly and cheaply' in 1874 by Robert Jewell Withers, with the intention of providing ministry to the poor living in the nearby slums of ...

. He spent part of 1976 as a visiting professor at the

Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyola, and included all ...

at Rome. Mascall died on 14 February 1993 in Seaford, East Sussex.

Intellectual interests

Mascall was a devout

but his early studies were in mathematics. He took a first in the subject at Pembroke College, and the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a di ...

at Cambridge. He remained engaged in relations between the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

es. Mascall wrote on many theological themes as well as natural theology; these included the above-mentioned ecumenism in ''The Recovery of Unity'' (1958), science and religion in his

Bampton Lectures The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have sometimes been biennial ...

, ''Christian Theology and Natural Science'' (1956), regarded by many at the time of its publication as the best book on the subject in English. His previous training in mathematics served him and readers well throughout his ministry. He also produced several publications opposing the ordination of women.

Works

* ''He Who Is: A Study in Traditional Theism''. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1943. * ''A Guide to Mount Carmel, Being a Summary and an Analysis of The Ascent of Mount Carmel by St. John of the Cross, with Some Introductory Notes''. Westminster: Dacre Press, 1944. * ''Christ, the Christian and the Church: A Study of the Incarnation and Its Consequences''. London: Longmans, 1946. * ''Existence and Analogy. A Sequel to "He Who Is"''. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1949. * ''The Mother of God: A Symposium by Members of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius''. London: Dacre Press, 1949. * ''The Angels of Light and the Powers of Darkness: A Symposium by Members of the Fellowship of S. Alban and S. Sergius''. Westminster: Faith Press, 1954.
''The Convocations and South India: What Did the Convocations Decide, and How Does Their Decision Affect the Catholicity of the Church of England''
London: A. R. Mowbray and Co., 1955. * ''Via Media: An Essay in Theological Synthesis'']. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1956. * ''Words and Images: A Study in Theological Discourse''. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1957. * * ''Ten, który jest: studium z teizmu tradycyjnego.'' Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1958. * ''Pi in the High''. London: Faith Press, 1959. * ''What Do We Mean by the Creation of the World? ''London: SPCK, 1960. * ''Grace and Glory''. London: Faith Press, 1961. * ''Theology and History: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at King's College'', London, 23 October 1962. Westminster: Faith Press, 1962. * ''The Blessed Virgin Mary: Essays by Anglican Writers'', ed. by E.L. Mascall and H.S. Box: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1963. * ''Corpus Christi: Essays on the Church and the Eucharist''. London: Longmans, 1965. * ''The Secularization of Christianity: An Analysis and a Critique''. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1965. * ''The Christian Universe''. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966. * "The Mother of God: An Address Given to the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary", 9 January 1968. London: Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1968. * ''Words and Images: A Study in Theological Discourse''. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1968. * ''Cristianismo secularizado: análisis y crítica''. Barcelona: Editorial Kairos, 1969. * ''Sekularyzacja chrześcijaństwa''. Warsaw: Pax, 1970. * ''Théologie De L'Avenir''. Desclée. Paris: 1970 * ''The Openness of Being: Natural Theology Today: The Gifford Lectures''. London: Westminster Press, 1971. * ''Women Priests?'' London: Church Literature Association, 1973. * ''The Importance of Being Human: Some Aspects of the Christian Doctrine of Man''. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1974. * ''Nature and Supernature''. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1976. * ''Whatever Happened to the Human Mind?: Essays in Christian Orthodoxy''. London: SPCK, 1980. * ''Theology and the Gospel of Christ: An Essay in Reorientation''. London: SPCK, 1980. * ''Jesus: Who He is, and How We Know Him''. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985. * ''The Triune God: An Ecumenical Study''. Worthing: Churchman Publishing, 1986. * ''Chrześcijańska koncepcja człowieka i wszechświata'' Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1986. * ''Otwartość bytu: teologia naturalna dzisiaj''. Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy "Pax", 1988. * ''Saraband: The memoirs of E. L. Mascall''. Herefordshire: Gracewing, 1992.

References

Notes Further reading *Hebblethwaite, Brian ‘Mascall, Eric Lionel (1905–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 *Mascall, Rev. Canon; Eric Lionel (b. Seaford, East Sussex 12 December 1905 – d. 14 February 1993). Who's Who 2006 and Who Was Who 1897–2005 (2005) *Mascall, E. L. (1992) ''Saraband: The memoirs of E. L. Mascall''. Leominster: Gracewing
Eric Lionel Mascall (an excerpt), from ''Cloud of Witnesses – Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive''.
Fr. Geoerge Rutler, Scepter Pubs, May 2010)

The Independent, 17 February 1993 *Proceedings of the British Academy, 1984, pp. 409–41

External links

He Who Is: A Study in Traditional Theism
nowiki/>, 1943. Archive.org
Existence and Analogy. A Sequel to "He Who Is"
1949. Archive.org * openlibrary:works/OL1338748W/The Christian universe, The Christian Universe, Mascall's 1965 Boyle Lecture
The Openness of Being
1970–71

Gifford Lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford at the four ancient universities of Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Their purpose is to "pro ...

in Edinburgh
Mascall's essay, "Women Priests?"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mascall, Eric Lionel 1905 births 1993 deaths English Anglo-Catholics 20th-century English theologians English Anglican theologians Thomists People educated at Latymer Upper School Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Alumni of Ely Theological College Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Academics of King's College London Members of Anglican religious orders 20th-century English Anglican priests Anglo-Catholic theologians Anglo-Catholic clergy Fellows of the British Academy Writers about religion and science Staff of Lincoln Theological College

Life

Intellectual interests

Works

See also

References

External links