A Biographical Sketch of the Spiritual Foundation of the Oxford University Socratic Club Jim Stockton Boise State University

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5-31-2012 Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle: A Biographical Sketch of the Spiritual Foundation of the Oxford University Socratic Club Jim Stockton Boise State University

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INKLINGS FOREVER, Volume VIII A Collection of Essays Presented at the Joint Meeting of

The Eighth FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM ON C.S. LEWIS & FRIENDS and

THE C.S. LEWIS AND THE INKLINGS SOCIETY CONFERENCE Taylor University 2012 Upland, Indiana

Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle: A Biographical Sketch of the Spiritual Foundation of the Oxford University Socratic Club

Jim Stockton Boise State University

Stockton, Jim. “Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle: A Biographical Sketch of the Spiritual Foundation of the Oxford University Socratic Club.” Inklings Forever 8 (2012) www.taylor.edu/cslewis 1

Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle: A Biographical Sketch of the Spiritual Foundation of the Oxford University Socratic Club

Jim Stockton Boise State University

Although the Oxford University “philosophical approach to religion” Socratic Club is most often identified with (Aldwinckle SD no. 2, 1). its first faculty advisor and president, C. S. This initial meeting was, as Lewis, the club itself grew out of the Aldwinckle recalled, “Quite civil,” bringing philosophical and theological curiosities about “good thoughtful questions, and that were felt, in large part, by the everyone very interested in saying, ‘Can’t undergraduate class of the early 1940s. we meet again?’ ” (Aldwinckle AI, 9). In a 1985 audio interview [AI] the club’s Much to her surprise, the second meeting founder, Chaplain Stella Aldwinckle, was “standing room only in the would recall that the inception for the Somerville J. C. R.,” giving rise to “a Socratic Club began at a ‘fresher’s tea’ at Socratic Club in embryo”(Aldwinckle AI, the rectory of St. Aldate’s toward the end 9). It was shortly after the second meeting of Michaelmas term of 1941. It was then that Aldwinckle would write C. S. Lewis that a young Somervillean woman by the asking him to be president of the Socratic name of Monica Shorten told the newly Club. Lewis gladly accepted the position, arrived Aldwinckle that she was “very and with his tutelage and Aldwinckle’s disappointed in the sermons that the fervent drive the club would become an different clergy are preaching,” in that instantaneous and long-lived success. they were taking “God’s existence and Over the course of twenty-seven years Christ’s divinity for granted“ (Aldwinckle 414 meetings were held, wherewith 306 AI, 8). When Aldwinckle inquired if any of scholars and guest speakers either her friends shared her concerns, delivered or responded to a wide variety Shorten’s response was an enthusiastic of topics (Socratic Club Papers and “Oh yes,” adding that along with her Speakers 1-12). Many of the speakers Christian friends there were “Plenty, were the most famous and widely read plenty, of agnostics and atheists” who academics of their day, including: Isiah were just as interested as she was in Berlin, H. H. Price, Gilbert Ryle, Michael discussing religious and philosophical Dummett, Fr. Frederick Copelston, issues (Aldwinckle AI, 8). Inspired by her Dorothy Sayers, Owen Barfield, Anthony conversations with Shorten and her Kenny, Iris Murdoch, Basil Mitchell, and friends, Aldwinckle would post an many others. Likewise, the Socratic Club announcement on the Somerville College was a testing ground for the early careers Junior Common Room bulletin board of such notable philosophers as G.E.M. inviting all parties, including “Atheists, Anscombe, A.J. Ayer, Antony Flew, Peter Agnostics come to the discussion,” on Geach, Philippa Foot, John Lucas, and what she would later refer to in the Alastair MacIntyre (Socratic Club Papers second Socratic Digest [SD] as a and Speakers 1-12). Added to this weekly

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meetings were often very lively, acting as was frequently recited, and her father’s the genesis to several legendary debates advice to the family was that the greatest that are still spoken and written about book ever written was St. John’s Gospel” today. Such a remarkable output on the (Leachman CS, 79). Leachman continues part of one of many student to tell us that Aldwinckle had a very organizations, at what is arguably the adventurous youth spent going back to most famous university in the world, England in 1915 during the war years, so would not have been possible without as be safely educated at Weston-super- Chaplain Aldwinckle’s passion, Mare grammatical school for girls, and dedication, and evangelical conviction. then returning to Brits, South Africa in Because of her passion, and the affect that 1925 to be reunited with her family. Back it gave rise to, Aldwinckle’s life was one in South Africa, the eighteen-year-old that was ‘well-examined’, and one that is Aldwinckle, along with her fifteen-year- well worth looking at. old brother Aylmer, started a tobacco Most of what is known, as well as farm in close proximity of the Crocodile what has been published, about River. Of this particular time, Aldwinckle Aldwinckle’s life and work is drawn from recalled that on her twenty-first birthday three sources. The first and most she “went down to the water there and significant primary resource, is the Stella prayed about the future. And the answer Aldwinckle Papers: 1922—1990 (Bulk was that I wanted to use my life to help Dates 1940—1972) housed at the Marion people find God” (Aldwinckle AI, 5). The E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, in profundity of this anecdote is notable, in Wheaton, Illinois. Amongst this collection that it acts as a reminder that Aldwinckle is the second most significant primary sincerely felt called to serve God, a point source, Professor Lyle W. Dorsett’s July that is often overlooked, dismissed, or (as 26, 1985 audio interview with Aldwinckle is most likely the case) simply accepted as Third in line are Iris Murdoch’s a given when her governance of the “Foreword” and Richard Leachman’s Socratic Club is put in front of the critical “Biographical Postscript” to Aldwinckle’s lens. The import of keeping this defining 1990 collected works of poetry, Christ’s moment in mind is that it affirms that Shadow in Plato’s Cave: A Meditation on Aldwinckle viewed the Socratic Club as the Substance of Love [CS]. As both an integral part of her mission and complementary sources to Aldwinckle’s an evangelical tool. In turn, and albeit by only book length publication, Murdoch extension, the club would become one of and Leachman’s insights are amongst the the Oxford Pastorate’s most successful few published reminiscences by her means of homilizing to an academic, and friends and colleagues. quite often skeptical, audience. Elia Estelle Aldwinckle was born Aldwinckle’s entry into the in Johannesburg, South Africa on the 16th ministry began in 1928 with her return to of December, 1907, served as the Oxford England. Once there she found Pastorate’s Chaplain for Women Students, employment as a nursemaid for a Baptist from 1941 to 1966, and died on minister in North London, and it was December 28th, 1989. In between the during this time that she would take Dorsett interview and the Leachman correspondence courses in Greek, so as to postscript Aldwinckle’s formative years strengthen her chances with the tell the story of a young woman who was university entrance exams. Aldwinckle raised in what Leachman refers to as a succeeded in gaining a place at Oxford’s “conventional Anglican middle class St. Anne’s College where she deliberately family—church was regularly attended, chose to read in theology. When asked the Lord’s Prayer formed a focal point and

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about this particular time in her life she of this turning point in Aldwinckle’s life would tell Dorsett that: when he writes: And, by a miracle, I believe, … gradually she came to realise that managed to get into Oxford. I had to she was not destined to spend her go up for an interview and all that life as a teacher, and that her true kind of thing, and got in to St. calling was pastoral. Stella returned Anne’s College. And I thought, ‘Now to Oxford and joined the Oxford what am I going to read?’ I thought, Pastorate, a team of workers ‘Well, I suppose what I’d like to do attached to St Aldate’s Church, yet would be to take the existence of independent of it, and whose work God as given, and read theology was, and still is, focused primarily rather than philosophy.’ So, I read on the spiritual counselling of the theology and one of my tutors was University’s undergraduates. Stella Austin Farrer, who became one of had clearly found her niche, and my very, very great friends and here she remained for twenty six helped me with my own years as Chaplain for Women philosophical research than anyone Students, from 1941 to 1966, could believe possible . . . exercising what proved to be a (Aldwinckle AI, 5) powerful and uplifting ministry among generations of students. Aldwinckle’s deliberate decision (Leachman , 79) to read theology is interesting on two CS accounts. One, as an aspiring The Socratic Club and undergraduate she understood then, or Aldwinckle’s ministry were joined at the came to understand later in her studies, hip from the very onset of her new the difference between a philosophical career—a point that is made evident in and theological study of religion. the 1985 interview when Dorsett and Secondly, her choice would put her in Aldwinckle engage in a quick exchange contact with Professor Austin Farrer, who that precedes the better known story of would become her advisor and life-long Monica Shorten’s disenchantment with friend. Not only was Farrer one of the the more liberal Christian sentiments of greatest theologians of the twentieth the day: century, he was also a close friend and critical ally of C.S. Lewis. When it came to DORSETT: . . . your position, then, the hey-days of the Socratic Club, Farrer was helping people spiritually and Lewis were a force to be reckoned find the way. This was fulfilling with, with Lewis delivering or responding this vision you really had on the to twenty-seven papers, and Farrer taking Crocodile River. to the lectren twenty-one times. ALDWINKCLE: Yes, yes. Returning to Aldwinckle’s earlier DORSETT: Helping people, helping years, after finishing her studies at St. seekers find God. Anne’s, she would teach Divinity at ALDWINKCLE: To find God, yes. Yorkshire for three years, followed by a DORSETT: Pointing people to God. position at St. Christopher’s College in ALDWINKCLE: And the philo- Blackheath, an affluent London suburb. In sophical work I’ve done all the 1941 she would reaffirm her calling, and way through, which I started in take her commitment to the Anglican 1945, came as a kind of urge that Church a step further by choosing a I got it started. pastoral path over teaching. Richard DORSETT: All right, so by the Leachman offers an insightful summation time—if I understand it

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correctly then, the Socratic Club the Aldwinckle papers make it very clear grows out of your ministry, that her understanding of ‘ontology’ was really. much more in step with Austin Farrer and ALDWINKCLE: Oh, yes, directly. C. S. Lewis’s Edwardian view of (Aldwinckle AI, 7-8) metaphysics than it was with the then current perspective of ontological Given this reminiscent, there can analysis—particularly so as it was being be little doubt over Aldwinckle’s re-defined and argued for by logical missionary intent in establishing the positivists such as Bertrand Russell and Socratic Club. Just as interesting is A.J. Ayer. As Adam Barkman points out, in Aldwinckle’s specified mention that her his 2009 publication C.S. Lewis & “philosophical work . . . started in 1945,” Philosophy as a Way of Life: A three years after the Socratic Club had Comprehensive Historical Examination of been established, and that the same said His Philosophical Thoughts, by the mid- “philosophical work” was associated with 1930s many of Oxford’s younger her calling (Aldwinckle AI, 8). philosophers: Further examination of the 1985 interview, and a corresponding analysis … belonged to one of the early of Aldwinckle’s club notes from the early schools of modern analytic 1940s, suggest that Aldwinckle’s philosophy, and their claim was undergraduate knowledge of the grounded in a radical empiricism foundational differences between and focus on linguistic meaning, theology and philosophy were starting to asserting that nothing should be evolve into a personal interpretation of believed or accepted without the centuries old conflict of Faith vs. verification; thus, for instance, they Reason. One of the clearest expressions of claimed metaphysical and theo- this interpretation is found in the early logical assertions should not be part of the 1985 interview when believed since they cannot be Aldwinckle explains that her: verified in the manner of scientific inquiry. … whole research, this whole (Barkman 204-05) philosophical effort that I’ve been making ever since that time, really, In sum, the battle between the few it’s completely new approach, you remaining idealistic philosophers, or see, but it it’s ultimately traditionalists (C. S. Lewis and Austin philosophical. But the pastoral Farrer being amongst them) who saw nerve of it is to remove the Edwardian theology as being an essential hindrances and misunderstandings pedagogical component of a refined, which prevent people from classical education, and the progressives becoming Christians . . . it’s an (many of them strongly influenced by ontological argument, really. It is logical positivism who viewed all matters the ontology of the Christian faith, religious with a skeptical eye) was one of ontology. Not just philosophy, but the century’s most contentious ontology. (Aldwinckle AI, 11) philosophical disputes. This was the backdrop by which Although the emphasis added to the Socratic Club came into its own, the word ontology is on the part of the particularly so in the late 1940s when the transcriber, the repetition of the term trauma of the war began to wane and speaks to the significance that Aldwinckle more students began to return to lecture. places on this central philosophical In such an exciting time the Oxford concept. However, a thorough reading of philosophers were not only insistent on

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being heard, they often came to dominate She entered the colleges of Oxford the stage. Such was the setting for one of boldly, not always welcome, but as the Socratic Club’s most exciting years, of right, taking her role among us 1948, wherein such debates as G.E.M. for granted . . . Stella did not appear Anscombe’s February 2 paper “‘Miracles’ as a ‘converter’ in any narrow or – a reply to Mr. C.S. Lewis,” commented on doctrinal sense, she taught by what by C. S. Lewis, Fr. Leslie Walker’s she was, by her presence, her faith February 23, 1948 “Christianity and and her concern . . . I left Oxford in Plato” fiercely responded to by then 1942, just after the Socratic Club professed atheist Anthony Flew, and the was founded, and returned in 1948 bombastic J. B. S Haldane’s November 15 to find the club flourishing and work, simply entitled “Atheism,” and indeed famous, and Stella as busy ‘somewhat’ reproached by I. M. Crombie as ever in her ‘parish’ carrying her all took the stage (Socratic Club Papers faith into all her corners. and Speakers 4-5). (Murdoch CS, 7) By the mid-1940s the Socratic Over the years Murdoch and Club was well-established and quickly Aldwinckle would become close friends, becoming one of the most popular and and it would be this relationship that talked about clubs in the university would bring Aldwinckle closer to two community. Aldwinckle quickly other women, analytical philosopher capitalized on the club’s success, and G.E.M. Anscombe and ethicist Philippa realizing that much of the notoriety Foot. Although Aldwinckle was closer to gained was due to Lewis’s growing Foot than she was Anscombe the celebrity she sought to expand her relationship that she had with her was mission by asking Dorothy Sayers and T.S. more than passing, and one that has been Eliot’s assistance in helping her in overlooked by more than one biographer establishing a London chapter. Although when approaching the circumstances both Sayers and Eliot expressed an revolving around the famous 1948 debate interest and admiration for the Socratic between Anscombe and Lewis. Just as Club, neither could comply with significant is the fact that all four women Aldwinckle’s request, leaving her seek delivered papers at Socratic Club attention from those in the Oxonian meetings during a time when Philosophy community who were most receptive—a and Theology was still overtly masculine, new generation of theologians and a matter that should not be seen as philosophers, particularly so younger merely coincidental. women fellows and lecturers who were As is the case with most long-lived seeking an audience. university organizations, the Socratic The most famous of these young Club evolved and changed throughout the women was Jean Iris Murdoch, an years, particularly so following Lewis’s aspiring Somerville and Cambridge departure for Cambridge in the autumn of educated philosopher who became a 1954. It is after Lewis’s departure that fellow of Oxford’s St. Anne’s College in the club’s membership and critical 1948, and who would eventually become perspective becomes decisively philo- recognized as one of the twentieth sophical. While religion remained a going century’s leading intellectuals and concern, and often dominated the novelists. In her “Foreword” to discussions at hand, the works delivered Aldwinckle’s Christ’s Shadow in Plato’s in the 1950s and 60s were much more , Murdoch recalls that: Cave analytical and contemporary than those seen in the 1940s and early 50s. It was a

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gradual shift in both conversation and approach means we are not doing context that didn’t escape Aldwinckle’s enough for those reading P.P.E. or attention. Early on in the club’s history, in Greats . . . (Aldwinckle OP 1963-64, sub-section entitled “Women’s Work,” 7) Aldwinckle would contribute the Even though she would report following comment to The Oxford that “my main work has been in the Pastorate Fifty-Fourth Report. July 1949— Socratic Club (which has had a very good [ ]: June 1950 OP year)” in the ensuing year (1965), For the intellectuals, on the other Aldwinckle’s notes of the 1960s show a hand, the growing ascendency of subtlely compromised attitude about club analytic method in philosophy is activities and discourse (Aldwinckle OP spreading scepticism of the subtlest 1964-65, 1). By the mid-1960s club kind. The Socratic Club is trying to debates and activities had begun to slow do something to meet this situation down, and in 1966 Aldwinckle would by a list of fixtures for the coming retire on the 25th anniversary of her academic year planned in service to the Oxford Pastorate. collaboration with a group of senior Even after retirement Aldwinckle philosophers. (Aldwinckle OP 1949- continued to attend Socratic Club 50, 9) meetings, remaining active until May 2, 1969 when her notes on those who spoke, In this account, Aldwinckle’s and what was said, come to an end. While optimistic words fit well with other Chaplain Aldwinckle’s passion for her reports that speak to the popularity and mission might have come across as being affect that the Socratic Club had during its a tad bit too evangelical or enthusiastic first twelve years. Although her for some Oxonians, and while her stewardship of the Socratic Club never understanding of philosophy was too faltered, and while her own interests in subjective and theological for philosophy grew alongside the club’s contemporary analysis, what is new-gained interest in analytical undeniable is that her shepherding of the discourse, Aldwinckle never gave up her Socratic Club gave many of the 20th Edwardian root. This point is clearly century’s most widely read and expressed fourteen years later wherein recognized philosophers and theologians The Oxford Pastorate Sixty-Eighth Report. a platform to speak from—and, for those July 1963—June 1964, she states: who were in need of spiritual comfort in a This leads on to the Socratic Club’s contentious world, she was there for work. For some time I have become them. increasingly dissatisfied with this on two counts: (1) We seem to find ourselves imprisoned by the all- powerful linguistic approach to philosophy, and to be drawn into rather arid discussion about religious language and its possible meaningfulness. The problem is how to get beyond this living in a strait-jacket to a style of discussion that relates more directly to a problem of finding a philosophy of life. (2) This arid linguistic

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Works Cited

Aldwinckle, Stella. Christ’s Shadow in Plato’s Cave: A Meditation on the Substance of Love. Oxford: Amate, 1990. ---. Interview with Professor Lyle W. Dorsett. Audio. Marion E. Wade Center: Wheaton College. Wheaton, IL, 1985 ---. Stella Aldwinckle Papers: 1922—1990 (Bulk Dates 1940—1972). Comp. Staff of the Marion E. Wade Center: Wheaton College. Wheaton, IL: Wade Center, 2012. ---. Preface. Socratic Digest. No. 2. Oxford: Oxonian Press, June 1944. ----. “Women’s Work.” The Oxford Pastorate Sixty-Eighth Report. July 1949—June 1950. Oxford: Oxford Pastorate, 1950. ---. “Women’s Work.” The Oxford Pastorate Sixty-Eighth Report. July 1963—June 1964. Oxford: Oxford Pastorate, 1964. ---. “Women’s Work.” The Oxford Pastorate Sixty-Eighth Report. July 1964—June 1965. Oxford: Oxford Pastorate, 1965. Barkman, Adam. C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life: A Comprehensive Historical Examination of His Philosophical Thoughts. Allentown, PA: Zossima Press, 2009. Leachman, Richard. Biographical Postscript. Christ’s Shadow in Plato’s Cave: A Meditation on the Substance of Love. By Stella Aldwinckle. Oxford: Amate, 1990. Murdoch, Iris. Foreward. Christ’s Shadow in Plato’s Cave: A Meditation on the Substance of Love. By Stella Aldwinckle. Oxford: Amate, 1990.