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. Although struggling with this relegation, Irving refused to compromise his principles and continued to anticipate a charismatic endowment, despite his rapid physical decline. In these two main crises of his ministerial career, Irving faced opposition and relegation precisely because of his unique amalgam of Romanticism and Christianity. Irving’s ministerial crises offer valuable insight into the wider social and ecclesiastical issues of the early nineteenth century. Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 The Historiography of Romanticism and Religion in England and Scotland, 1789-1834 ............................................................... 4 Chapter 2 An Overview of Edward Irving’s Life ............................................. 31 Chapter 3 An Historiography of Edward Irving ............................................. 61 Chapter 4 Irving and Coleridge ………………………. .................................. 100 Chapter 5 Irving and the Carlyles................................................................ 172 Chapter 6 The “Ravished Heart”: Irving’s Romantic Theology .................. .. 233 Chapter 7 Romantic Theology in Crisis ....................................................... 285 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 319 Bibliography Acknowledgements It is intriguing to observe the journey of PhD students: some arrive at the finish line joyless and embittered with grudges against institutions, supervisors, and subject matter. Others are simply exhausted, passionately vowing never again to research anything other than a restaurant menu. I find I have arrived at my own finish line having enjoyed every second of the past three years, and for that I am deeply grateful. I am profoundly aware that the richness of my PhD experience rests on the contribution of others. Firstly, that of my supervisor, Associate Professor Rowan Strong of Murdoch University, who was also my supervisor for my Master’s degree. Rowan’s ability to provide supervision that was both light-hearted and gimlet-eyed as I stumbled through his beloved nineteenth century was immensely encouraging. I am grateful also to Dr. Tim Grass for making available the manuscript of his forthcoming publication Edward Irving: the Lord’s watchman, and to Mrs Barbara Waddington for providing scans of Edward Irving’s correspondence. Along the way, I have been blessed by the generosity of others. In London, I enjoyed the hospitality of Sister Patricia McMahon, a cousin, and her fellow Sisters of Mercy in Tower Hamlets. In Oxford, Richard, Liz and Nat Mortimer graciously lent me their Abingdon home. Librarians at New College Library in Edinburgh, the British Library and the Bodleian were invariably helpful and efficient. Special thanks to Christopher Hunwick, archivist at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland for allowing free access to the castle archives. To be handling Irving’s correspondence in Alnwick Castle in a tower room that was probably the spot where Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur) was born in the mid-fourteenth century (and coincidentally above the lawn where a young Harry Potter learnt to fly a broomstick) was a heady privilege indeed. Thanks also to His Grace, the Duke of Northumberland, for this opportunity and for permission to use some extracts from the Drummond papers. Many people along the way have offered encouragement, including staff at Riverview Leadership College, Harvest West Bible College and Vose Seminary (formerly the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia). I would especially like to thank Dr. Michael O’Neil, Dr. Ashley Crane, Dr. Mick Stringer, Dr. Mark Jennings and Robert Andrews in this regard. Finally, there is my family. My parents, Dorothy and Keith Hill, have been a consistent source of practical help at a time in their lives when they could easily have justified non-involvement. My wife Deborah, who this year will have been yoked to a history-obsessed husband for a quarter of a century, has demonstrated preternatural patience and support. My sons Joel and Jason, both rapidly leaving childhood behind, seemed to understand not only that I enjoyed this undertaking, but also gradually came to accept that someone my age could still be studying. All of this demonstrates the truth of John Donne’s famous line about no-one being an island. Although Donne wrote this long before the Romantic era, it encapsulates a core Romantic insight about history, as well as the reason for the gratitude I feel towards all those who have contributed to the journey reflected in the following pages. 1 Introduction Edward Irving (1792-1834) was a complex and controversial Church of Scotland minister living at the height of the Romantic period in Britain, so it is little wonder that he has received scholarly attention, a process that has intensified in the last forty years. Faced with Irving‘s complexity it is also understandable that scholars have generally chosen to focus on certain aspects of his career and/or theology; to do otherwise would have been to undertake a daunting multi-volume work. Therefore, some have focused on Irving‘s Christology, others on his millennialism or his interest in the charismata; still others have attempted biography with less of a theological focus. In some of these works, mention is made that Irving was a Romantic, but this has not been an aspect that has been explored in depth. David Bebbington‘s 1989 publication first alerted me to the Irving-Romanticism nexus, and piqued my curiosity to explore further.1 Both Irving‘s contemporaries and more recent scholars have noted his strengths, for example, his preaching ability, lofty vision for the Church, and his indefatigable pastoral efforts. The same scholars have also identified faults, but as we shall see, they share a suspicion that these faults were not sufficient to explain subsequent events adequately. This thesis proposes an answer to this question that has haunted Irving scholars, namely, how could someone with such promise end up isolated, relegated and dead at forty-two? I will argue that Irving‘s Romanticism was a unifying factor informing and creating his theological distinctives. The thesis also explores the ways in 1 Bebbington, D., Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the1730s to the 1980s (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 78ff. 2 which Irving‘s Romantic convictions precipitated the various crises he faced during his ministerial career. The first chapter of the thesis surveys the historiography of Romanticism and religion in Britain during the period of Irving‘s lifetime, drawing primarily from the scholarship of the past forty years. Romanticism proves an elusive beast, but gaining some understanding of it and its potential affinities with religion was essential for the purposes of this thesis. Chapter two is an overview of Irving‘s life, followed by a chapter on the historiography of Irving. Chapters four and five offer an extended journey into primary sources. Irving had significant friendships with two giants of nineteenth century British Romanticism: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle. Coleridge made many references to Irving in his notebooks, marginalia and correspondence, and this thesis represents the first time that these sources have been comprehensively examined for the purpose of establishing the details of the poet-philosopher‘s relationship with Irving. Coleridge was twenty years Irving‘s senior, but they shared a profound commitment to the Christian Church. The letters of Thomas and Jane Carlyle give us another lens through which to see Irving. This lens has a specifically