In Search of the Romantic Christ: the Origins of Edward Irving's Theology
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In Search of the Romantic Christ: The Origins of Edward Irving’s Theology of Incarnation. Nicholas John Cuthbert Tucker Department of History and Politics School of Arts and Humanities University of Stirling A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by Professor David W. Bebbington February 2018 28 February 2018 I, Nicholas John Cuthbert Tucker, declare that this thesis has been composed by me and that the work which it embodies is my work and has not been included in another thesis. i Acknowledgements The initial impetus for this thesis came from a conversation with the Revd Dr. Michael Ovey (1958-2017). I am deeply grateful for his many encouragements and insights along the way, and it is a great sadness to me that Mike did not live to see the completion of this work, which is dedicated to his memory. My wife, Sam, has been a source of unfailing encouragement at all times, especially when the going has been hard. It would be hard to overstate how grateful I am to her for the patience and kindness she has shown me in the protracted gestation of this project. I am also indebted in every way to, Joanna and John Tucker, my mother and father, who also kindly agreed to offer comments on an earlier version of this study. Thanks are also due to my former colleagues at Oak Hill College for their support, and especially to Anne Andrews who kindly read through a draft of this thesis. The congregation of St Bartholomew in Edgbaston have been very kind in sharing their vicar with this work for the last two years, and I wish to thank the churchwardens: Guy Hordern and Joe Jordan, for pressing me to put some pastoral duties aside in this last month of study. I am grateful for the support that I have received from the Kingham Hill Trust, whose generosity has made this work possible, and latterly to the Diocese of Birmingham for its assistance. There are many others to whom thanks are due, and it would be invidious to try to list them all. I do wish, nonetheless, to acknowledge in particular: the staff at the British Library, and the York City Archives for their assistance and expertise; Trish Giles, who showed me around at Lumen, the site of Irving’s Church in Regent Square, and introduced me to its archivist Barbara Waddington, who in turn inducted me into the world of its archive material and spent some fascinating hours discussing Irving with me; and finally Dr Tim Grass who shared his background research with me before his biography was published. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the support and assistance of my supervisor David Bebbington, whose patient guidance over ten years has been transformative for me as a student. ii Abstract This thesis, reassesses the evidence surrounding Edward Irving’s controversial teaching about the doctrine of the incarnation. Irving was a controversial figure in his own day and his legacy has been contested ever since he was dismissed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland for teaching that Christ had a ‘fallen’ human nature. This thesis re-examines the emergence and significance of Irving’s teaching. It evaluates the scholarly consensus that his distinctive Christology was a stable feature of his thought and argues the case that his thinking in this area did change significantly. Methodologically, this thesis draws on some aspects of Quentin Skinner’s work in the importance of context (Chapter Two) to understand Irving as he really was, rather than in terms of his later significance. In the light of this, Irving’s biography is examined in Chapter Three, before moving into a discussion of the influential part played by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Irving’s intellectual development (Chapter Four). The second half of the thesis then moves on to consider the development of Irving’s Christology and the questions surrounding its provenance and development (Chapters Five and Six). Finally, in Chapter Seven, possible sources of explanation for Irving’s distinctive ideas about the Incarnation are exhibited and assessed. The argument of this thesis is that Edward Irving developed an account of the Incarnation that was essentially novel, in response to the Romantic ideas that he had derived from Coleridge. In accordance with Coleridge’s assessment, it is argued that this derivation was rendered more complex by Irving’s incomplete apprehension of Coleridge’s underlying philosophy. Nonetheless, it is argued that Edward Irving’s teaching presented a Romantic version of Christ, and that this distinctive conception owes more to the times in which Irving lived than to the theological tradition to which he claimed adherence. iii Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................... ii Abstract ...................................................................... iii Chapter 1 Introduction............................................................ 1 Chapter 2 Historiography and Edward Irving............................. 14 Chapter 3 A Hero’s Journey? The Life of Edward Irving........... 49 Chapter 4 Seeds Bearing Fruit: The Intellectual Influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.................................... 102 Chapter 5 Edward Irving’s Understanding of Christ: Revival or Revision?............................................... 141 Chapter 6 Emergence: The Development of Edward Irving’s Christology................................ 174 Chapter 7 A Romantic Christ: Sources of Explanation for Edward Irving’s Christological Novelties................. 214 Chapter 8 Conclusion ............................................................. 242 Bibliography ............................................................................... 254 iv Chapter 1 Introduction Alone in the churchyard at Annan, at the eastern end of the Solway Firth, stands a statue bearing the likeness of Edward Irving. That this effigy, albeit of one of Annan’s most famous sons, should stand where it now does would have been unthinkable in his lifetime. In the same location, on 13 March 1833, Edward Irving was deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland on charges of heresy. That he should now be honoured, where once he was so disgraced, illustrates powerfully the changing reception of Irving’s ideas amongst his countrymen and in the National Kirk. Edward Irving was one of the most influential preachers to occupy a Church of Scotland pulpit in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was typically unusual of Irving that his entire ordained ministry in the Kirk should have been conducted, not in Scotland, but in the heart of Georgian London. Irving was happy to be unconventional, he believed that he was destined to breathe new life into a national Church that he considered had grown stale and cold, and always cut a distinctive figure. A very tall and handsomely built man, everything about Irving was larger than life. James Grant relays the story of ‘a popular Dissenting minister’ who attended Irving’s home for prayers at 6 in the morning, on his way to teach a class of theological students at 7am. Irving opened the meeting by praying and was still in full flow forty-five minutes later, when the minister in question, anxious to get to his class and despairing of Irving’s prayer reaching a conclusion, tried to sneak down the stairs and open the front door as quietly as he could: he was in the act of taking off the latch when a large Newfoundland dog, which Mr Irving kept in his house at the time, sprang upon him and, placing one of his fore paws on either shoulder, forced the reverend gentleman down to a crouching position with his head against the door…when Mr Irving…concluded his devotions, one of his 1 servants…released [this man] from the exceedingly awkward and unpleasant predicament in which he was placed.1 Irving’s gigantism seems to have extended to every area of his life and ministry to the extent that, in a pun on his home town, he came to be known as a ‘Son of Anak’.2 He certainly never failed to make an impression. For many today, the only acquaintance they have with the name of Edward Irving is as a footnote to the stories of other, better remembered, characters from the early nineteenth century. He was sufficiently important in the lives of Thomas and Jane Carlyle (independently of each other at first), Thomas Chalmers, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that his name appears regularly in the indexes of works devoted to those great figures. It is even said that the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day, Sir Henry Irving, took his nom de théâtre because of an admiration for Edward Irving’s dramatic talent.3 But, although Irving is better known today by association with others than in his own right, it was not always so. Some indication of the extent of the fame and notoriety that adorned Edward Irving’s career can be observed from the proliferation of obituaries published following the death of his Father, Gavin, on 17 June 1832. Irving senior, a tanner, was not a figure of particular note even in his own town of Annan, yet his death was reported in newspapers around the country. In those days, the regional papers reported deaths in two parts: the first announcing the decease of local people, and the second recording people of national significance. Gavin Irving’s name appeared in the second section in each of the papers which carried news of his death. The Lancaster Gazette included Gavin (or as they had it Gawin) Irving in the company of an admiral’s wife, a duchess, a baronet and a noted author.4 The 1. James Grant, ’The Rev. Edward Irving,’ in The Pulpit: Biographical Sketches of the Most Popular Preachers in London, (London: George Virtue, 1843), pp. 171-172. 2. The descendants of Anak in the books of Genesis were said to be exceptionally tall and descended from the Nephilim. For examples of this nickname see Andrew Landale Drummond, Edward Irving and his Circle, Including Some Consideration of the ‘Tongues’ Movement in the Light of Modern Psychology (London: J.