DOCSLIB.ORG

Edward Irving's Hybrid

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Edward Irving's Hybrid chapter 11 Edward Irving’s Hybrid: Towards a Nineteenth- Century Apostolic and Presbyterian Pentecostalism Peter Elliott Introduction The London-based ministry of Edward Irving was short, stellar, and controver- sial. Born in south-west Scotland in 1792 and educated at Edinburgh University, Irving served as parish assistant to Church of Scotland minister Thomas Chalmers in Glasgow for three years from 1819 to 1822. In 1821, he received an unexpected call from the Caledonian Chapel in London to preach for them with a view to becoming their next minister, an invitation that was probably less of a compliment to Irving than a reflection of the dwindling fortunes of the congregation.1 Irving preached for them during December 1821 and took up the position as their minister in July, 1822.2 Twelve years later, in December 1834, Irving was dead at the age of 42. These twelve years from 1822 to 1834 saw a rapid rise and gradual decline in Irving’s ministerial career, if not his hopes, as during this time he became London’s most popular preacher, a published author, and a theological innovator. His theological contributions, while often focused elsewhere, had inevitable implications for the issue of leadership within the church and other religious organisations. Explosive Growth The influence of Romanticism on Irving has been frequently noted.3 Like most of his contemporaries, he was affected by the political aftermath of the 1 The congregation had dwindled to about 50 at this time, and was barely able to pay a minis- ter’s salary. Arnold Dallimore, The Life of Edward Irving: the Fore-runner of the Charismatic Movement (Edinburgh, 1983), p. 31. 2 Margaret Oliphant, The Life of Edward Irving, 5th ed. (London, n.d.), pp. 68, 76. 3 One of the first writers to make this explicit was J.J. Nantomah, Jesus the God-man: the Doctrine of the Incarnation in Edward Irving in the Light of the Teaching of the Church Fathers and its Relevance for a Twentieth Century African Context, University of Aberdeen, Ph.D. Thesis, 1982, p. 33. Also see my Edward Irving: Romantic Theology in Crisis (Milton Keynes, 2013). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi �0.��63/9789004303��6_0�� <UN> 140 Elliott French Revolution and the Napoleonic years, and the associated cultural reactions. In addition, his network of acquaintances included a number of significant Romantic figures. He maintained a friendship with Thomas Carlyle that extended back to their youth in Scotland, and his London acquaintances included William Hazlitt, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Lamb and, especially, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.4 Romanticism affected Irving’s theological development and his views on church leadership. A year after his arrival in London, the small congregation Irving had inher- ited was experiencing explosive growth. Numbering about 50 when he arrived, by 1823 more than 1,000 people were trying to attend morning worship.5 Irving now had an audience for his sermons, and he soon turned this into a reader- ship. One of Irving’s early publications was a reprint of an address he gave in 1824 for the anniversary of the London Missionary Society;6 no doubt its offi- cials were hoping that obtaining the city’s most famous preacher would help increase their financial support. They were to be sorely disappointed. The building was so crowded that the service began an hour before the appointed time, and an astonished crowd heard Irving proclaim the ideal missionary as one who went with no visible means of support and was answerable to no committee – a Calvary-driven apostle: “[Missionaries] dare not be under other orders than the orders of Christ. It is a presumption hardly short of Papal, to command them. They are not missionaries when they are commanded. They are creatures of the power that commandeth them.”7 In his three and a half hour address, Irving promoted what he saw as the biblical pattern for missions against an overly prudent pragmatism which he believed dishonoured God by valuing worldly wisdom more than courageous faith:8 4 Oliphant, Irving (see above, n.2), p. 92. Irving was introduced to this literary circle through Basil Montagu. Irving met Coleridge in July, 1823 and although their views often differed, their friendship was characterised by mutual respect and admiration. Coleridge, twenty years Irving’s senior, died some five months before Irving in 1834. 5 Dallimore, Irving (see above, n. 1), p. 32. 6 For Missionaries after the Apostolic School. A Series of Orations, in Four Parts (London, 1824). Irving delivered the address in May, 1824, less than two years after his arrival in London. 7 Irving, Missionaries (see above, n. 6), in The Collected Writings of Edward Irving, ed. Gavin Carlyle, 5 vols. (London, 1864–1865), 1: 504. Oliphant, Irving (see above, n. 2), p. 96. 8 Ibid., 1: 431. Dallimore, Irving (see above, n. 1), p. 48. During this lengthy address, there were two breaks for hymns. <UN>.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Edward Irving
    Edward Irving: Romantic Theology in Crisis Peter Elliott Edward Irving: Romantic theology in crisis Peter Elliott BA, BD, MTh(Hons.) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology of Murdoch University 2010 I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. …………………… Peter Elliott Abstract In 1822 a young Church of Scotland minister named Edward Irving accepted a post in London and quickly attracted wide upper-class support. He numbered amongst his friends and admirers the political historian Thomas Carlyle and the Romantic poet-philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge. During the next decade, Irving developed views and practices that could be described as millenarian and proto- pentecostal; his interest in prophecy grew and his Christology became unorthodox. He was ejected from his church and hundreds followed him to begin a new group. Within a short period of time, he was relegated to a subordinate position within this group, which later became the Catholic Apostolic Church. He died in 1834 at the age of 42. This paper examines Irving’s underlying Romanticism and the influences on him, including his complex relationships with Carlyle and Coleridge, and then demonstrates how his Romanticism informed all of his key theological positions, often in tension with the more established Rationalism of the time. In ejecting Irving from his pastorate, the Church of Scotland officials were rejecting his idealistic and Romantic view of Christianity. It was this same idealism, with reference to the charismata, that alienated Irving from a senior role in the nascent Catholic Apostolic Church.
    [Show full text]
  • A Charismatic Model of the Church
    A Charismatic Model of the Church A Charismatic Model of the Church: Edward Irving’s Teaching in a 21st-century Chinese Context By David Lee A Charismatic Model of the Church: Edward Irving’s Teaching in a 21st-century Chinese Context By David Lee This book first published 2018 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2018 by David Lee All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0572-3 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0572-8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................... ix Abbreviations ............................................................................................... x Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Irving the Pastor-Theologian in Context Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 35 Coleridge and Irving’s Doctrine of Divine Being and the Humanity of Christ Chapter Three ...........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Mr. Froude As a Biographer
    JULIA WEDGWOOD 111 no less forthright and penetrating about Froude, “the trusted son who has opened the gates to the hostile crowd.” As an apt sequel to the letters of Lady Harriet Ashburton, Wedgwood’s essay on Froude’s edition of Reminiscences is published below. Together, these sources provide the impetus to establish a new critical “court of appeal,” in which the original verdicts against Carlyle can be subjected to a more scrupulous and fair-minded process of “revisal and rectification.” Mr. Froude as a Biographer. CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 39 (May, 1881): 821–42 Reminiscences. By thomas Carlyle. Edited by J. A. Froude. 2 vols. Longmans. That we should speak only good of the dead—which means, of course, of the recently dead—is a maxim founded on respect to the best part of our nature. There is always some one on whom, at such a moment, any harsh judgment on the one who is gone inflicts a peculiarly painful wound, and if by any sad chance there should be no one, then the sense of a common humanity should replace the peculiar ties which have been loosened or broken, and demand, with an even superior claim, that we should pay so forlorn a being the tribute of a respectful silence. We hurt the sense of pity, of reverence within, when we needlessly allow ourselves to put hard judgments of one recently gone from us into words, even if they are just words. And in ordinary circumstances such words are needless. That chapter is closed—with that person our relations are ended, his faults can hurt us no more.
    [Show full text]
  • Quarterly Review
    The Theological and Ideological Roots of the Balfour Declaration International Conference on Britain’s Legacy in Palestine Palestine Return Centre: 19th January 2013 Introduction In this presentation we are going to trace some of the significant events and individuals that led to the Balfour Declaration. 1. Puritanism and the Conversion of the Jews The road to Balfour began in the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation brought about a renewed interest in the Old Testament and God’s dealings with the Jewish people. From Protestant pulpits right across Europe, the Bible was for the first time in centuries being taught within its historical context and given its plain literal sense. At the same time, a new assessment of the place of the Jews within the purposes of God emerged. Puritan eschatology was essentially postmillennial and believed the conversion of the Jews would lead to future blessing for the entire world. In 1621, for example, Sir Henry Finch, an eminent lawyer and member of the English Parliament, published a book, The World’s Great Restauration (sic) or Calling of the Jews, (and with them) all the Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth, to the Faith of Christ. By the late 17th Century and right through the 18th Century, especially during the period of the Great Awakening, postmillennial eschatology dominated European and American Protestantism.1 The writings and preaching of Jonathan Edwards 1 (1703-1758),2 as well as George Whitefield, were influential in the spread of the belief that the millennium had arrived, that the gospel would soon triumph against evil throughout the world.
    [Show full text]
  • An Examination of the Views of Edward Irving Concerning the Person and I7ork of Jesus Christ
    An Examination of the Views of Edward Irving concerning The Person and I7ork of Jesus Christ. Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph. D. Paul Ewing Davies, A.B..B.D. Fellow of MoCormiok Theological Seminary Chicago, Illinois U.S.A. i T ER12FAOE This study of the views of Edward Irving on the person and work of Jesus Christ has "been long delayed in its preparation. It is to be hoped that the time which has elapsed since its inception has served a beneficent purpose. It v/as Charles Darwin who wrote of one of his "books, long postponed: "The delay in this case, as with all my other "books, has "been a great advantage to me; for a man after a long interval can criticise his own work, almost as well as if it were that of another~person. n The material on v/hioh this study is "based takes in the full range from the coarse venom of the London pamphleteer to the strong words of Thomas Carlyle. Irving himself wrote volume after volume, and the student is almost embarrassed by the material from the pen of this eccentric preacher. '/Thole sections of this first-hand material dealing with subjects prophetical were passed by as irrelevant to the theme. The "Life" by Mrs. Oliphant is most readable and gives on attractive picture of the hero. But the sentimentslism of the book oasts a shade upon its historical value, and the student is thrown back on accounts of the life v/hioh, though less complete, v/ere written shortly after his time.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Genius, Heredity, and Family Dynamics. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and His Children: a Literary Biography Yolanda J. Gonz
    ABSTRACT Genius, Heredity, and Family Dynamics. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his Children: A Literary Biography Yolanda J. Gonzalez, Ph.D. Chairperson: Stephen Prickett, Ph.D. The children of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hartley, Derwent, and Sara, have received limited scholarly attention, though all were important nineteenth century figures. Lack of scholarly attention on them can be blamed on their father, who has so overshadowed his children that their value has been relegated to what they can reveal about him, the literary genius. Scholars who have studied the children for these purposes all assume familial ties justify their basic premise, that Coleridge can be understood by examining the children he raised. But in this case, the assumption is false; Coleridge had little interaction with his children overall, and the task of raising them was left to their mother, Sara, her sister Edith, and Edith’s husband, Robert Southey. While studies of S. T. C.’s children that seek to provide information about him are fruitless, more productive scholarly work can be done examining the lives and contributions of Hartley, Derwent, and Sara to their age. This dissertation is a starting point for reinvestigating Coleridge’s children and analyzes their life and work. Taken out from under the shadow of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, we find that Hartley was not doomed to be a “child of romanticism” as a result of his father’s experimental approach to his education; rather, he chose this persona for himself. Conversely, Derwent is the black sheep of the family and consciously chooses not to undertake the family profession, writing poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • Personal Reminiscences of Edward Irving
    PERSONAt REM1N1SOEN'OJJJS OP EDWARD IRVING. 257 ------- ------~~~~~~ quiry ; and their significance extends beyond the immediate field of investigation from which they have been taken. For while some of the variations which we have noticed are in themselves trivial, some are evidently important: but they all represent the action of the same law ; they all hang together ; they are samples of the general character of the Revision. And, even if we estimate differently the value of the particular differences which they express, we can cer­ tainly see that they do express differences ; and they are sufficient, I cannot doubt, to encourage the student to con­ sider in any case of change which comes before him whether there may not have been reasons for making it which are not at once clear ; whether it may not suggest some shade of thought undefined before ; whether, at any rate, it is not more reverent to allow the apostles to speak to us as nearly as possible in the exact form in which they first spoke. B. F. WESTCOTT. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF EDWARD IRVING. I COME now to the critical stage of Mr. Irving's career, and of my connexion with him. For three years before I saw him his attention had been powerfully drawn to the study of Prophecy by Mr. James Hatley Frere, a gentleman of incisive mind and then well known as a writer on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, specially in connexion with the pre-millennial theory of the Second Advent-a study which some think fitted only to turn people's heads, while others, who find so large a portion of Scripture occupied with it, think themselves not at liberty to neglect it.
    [Show full text]
  • John Taylor's Religious Preparation
    NOTES AND COMMENTS John Taylor's Religious Preparation G. St. John Stott n the spring of 1836 when John Taylor was baptized in Toronto by IParley P. Pratt, he had completed a quest for religious certainty. His search had taken him from Methodism to Christian Primitivism and had in- volved a period of fascination with the restorationism of the now little-known Catholic Apostolic Church. Taylor, who would become the third president of the LDS Church in 1880, had been converted to Methodism in his early teens in England and was appointed a Methodist exhorter at age seventeen (Roberts 1892, 28). But when Taylor emigrated to Canada in 1832 at age twenty-four, though he acted as preacher and class leader in York (as Toronto was known until 1834), he was not fully content in his faith. This discontent was perhaps first shown in January 1833 when Taylor mar- ried Leonora Cannon, a member of his class. Officiating at the ceremony was the Reverend Samuel J. I. Lockhart, chaplain to the Right Reverend C. J. Stewart, Anglican Bishop of Quebec, and connected with the Church of England-sponsored Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.1 The Marriage Act of 1830 (actually passed in 1829) had given Methodist ministers in Upper Canada the right to perform marriages (Riddell 1921, 239), and for Methodists not to take advantage of this was unusual. Thus, even if Lockhart's services were originally proposed by Cannon's employer, the wife of the private secretary to the Governor General, Taylor's consent to an Anglican wedding was probably a sign of his disaffection.2 G.
    [Show full text]
  • Here Room to Survey the Many Sermons Which Were Preached at Albury and Subsequently Printed for Wider Circulation
    26/11/2020 Albury and the Catholic Apostoli Albury and the Catholic Apostolic Church An updated version of a talk delivered to the Albury History Society, 21 March 2007 Dr Tim Grass APOSTOLISCHEOBSERVER.NL VOOR NIEUWS EN HISTORISCHE ACHTERGRONDEN. Index Navigatie pagina Disclaimer Contact Boeken Anoniem reageren. Archief Zoeken binnen de site. Albury and the Catholic Apostolic Church An updated version of a talk delivered to the Albury History Society, 21 March 2007[1] Dr Tim Grass Contact details Dr Tim Grass 21 Laughton Road Horsham West Sussex RH12 4EJ Tel: (01403) 273697 E-mail: [email protected]. Introduction For many, the interest of the story arises from knowing the building and is setting as part of the local landscape but knowing so little about it, and about the beliefs which led to its being built and then closed. I have been interested in the church for about twenty years, I studied it as part of my Ph.D., I have friends who were brought up in it, and I am now writing a book on it (as well as another on the man who was its John the Baptist, Edward Irving). This evening, I wish to focus on the Albury congregation and the role it played in the development of the Catholic Apostolic Church as a whole; space does not allow anything like a comprehensive introduction to the movement’s history and beliefs. Neither is there room to survey the many sermons which were preached at Albury and subsequently printed for wider circulation. At this point, let me introduce the main sources which I have used, because I am sometimes asked where I manage to find my material: · ‘Annals: the Lord’s Work in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth Pollard
    To the review board, I wish to express my view about the use of cages where layer hens are confined for the production of eggs. I am a Christian theologian, educator and author of various books and articles published in academic journals and mass media periodicals. I also successfully completed study in Animal Law in 2005 at the University of NSW, and am working on research projects related to the history of animal welfare. The evidence produced in a variety of careful scientific studies published over the last quarter of a century written by competent animal behaviouralists, veterinarians and biologists indicates that the constant confinement of the hens is not in the best interests of these creatures. Best interest refers to their physical well-being and health as well as for the normal patterns of their behaviour (publications include academic journals such as Ethology, Bulgarian Jnl of Agricultural Science, Applied Animal Behaviour Science; Marian Stamp Dawkins, Why Animals Matter (Oxford Uni Press 2012), etc). The issues for normal behaviour and health include brooding behaviour, pecking behaviour, dust-bathing, foraging, as well as hygiene, feeding and body weight all in the context of a confined environment (i.e. cages in density located in a stocking shed). I have concerns about the well- being of layer hens in light of the fact that the usual patterns of behaviour are curbed due to confinement in the cages (both battery cage and enriched cage varieties). The management of the environment is shaped by industrial processes where the primary interest is in the main result: the maximum quantity of eggs produced for minimal costs.
    [Show full text]
  • Torn Between Two Identities: Edward Irving’S Scottish Presbyterianism and British Nationalism
    T Torn between two identities: Edward Irving’s Scottish Presbyterianism and British nationalism Byung Sun Lee Edward Irving and Thomas Carlyle often walked around the brooks near their home in Dumfriesshire. Suddenly Irving spoke to Carlyle, “One day we will both shake hands across the brook, you as a first in Literature, I as first in Divinity – and people will say, ‘Both these fellows are from Annandale. Where is Annandale? ’” 1 Introduction T Edward Irving (1792–1834), the great orator of the National Scotch Church in Regent Square, London, is still a controversial figure known for his unconventional ideas concerning the person of Christ, the manifestation of supernatural gifts, and millennialism. His life represents a dramatic theological journey, inspired by a burning and passionate love for God. Almost all of Irving’s theological ideas had their focus on humanity’s desperate desire to approach God through the person of Christ. Along with his theology, his life has also attracted much scholarly attention on account of its panoramic journey: from being Scottish and uncelebrated to achieving unprecedented popularity in London; and from prominence as a Presbyterian minister to being deposed from the National Kirk. Irving’s legacy is that of a radical evangelical figure who played a significant role in changing the direction of Evangelicalism in the 1830s. Extensive research on him, viewing his work and theology in synthetic perspective, has begun to reveal a portrait of his life in its integrity. As a starting point, I will offer an account of the sphere in page 37 which his thoughts and, indeed, his identity, were developed.
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
    27 OFTEN DOWN, BUT NEVER OUT SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) n his quest for a livelihood, in his family life, and in his response to the Enlightenment, the Ipoet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the contrary of the lesser writer Sydney Smith. His gi- ant weeping willow overshadows Smith’s modest hawthorn, and his letters, unlike Smith’s, are the letters of an unhappy man. Coleridge’s troubles begin in childhood. In 1781, on the threshold of his ninth year, the death of his father, the Vicar of Ottery in Devon, leaves him in the charge of his brother George. After be- ing schooled at Christ’s Hospital, he goes up to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he distinguishes himself as a scholar; falls in love with Mary Evans, whose mother tends him with maternal affection when he is ill; and indulg- es in enough wayward behaviour to pile up debts he cannot pay. During a three-year period beginning when he is eighteen, he lapses from chastity in his association with loose women. In despair and shame, resisting the temptation of suicide, he enlists in the dragoons, or light cavalry, under the name Silas Tomkyn Comberbache. His friends and family succeed in trac- ing him, and after much difficulty his brothers George and James procure his discharge, ostensibly on the grounds of his insanity. Soon after returning to Cambridge, Coleridge meets Robert Southey, and the two young poets, both radicals, concoct a scheme only a little less hare-brained than the flight into the military. With other enthusiasts, they will found a Utopian colony in the United States of America to practise pantisocracy (the rule of all as equals) and aspheterism (commonality of property).
    [Show full text]