Frederick Denison Maurice

English theologian

• Born: April 29, 1805
• Birthplace: Normanton, Suffolk, England
• Died: April 1, 1872
• Place of death: London, England

Maurice was one of the most respected theologians in an age when religious crisis was a part of almost every person’s life. His efforts to support educational and social reforms, specifically his involvement with the movement known as Christian Socialism, had a significant beneficial impact on the working classes.

Early Life

Born on the English coast during the year in which Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French in the Battle of Trafalgar, John Frederick Denison Maurice (he dropped his first name early in his adult life) was the only surviving son of Unitarian minister Michael Maurice and his wife, Priscilla. Frederick and his five sisters, along with two cousins who moved in with the family while Frederick was quite young, grew up in a deeply religious household whose history was, by any standards, most unusual. Originally, the family adhered to the father’s strict Unitarian beliefs. In a hectic period beginning in 1814, however, the family members began to fall away from that creed. Maurice’s older sisters, and then his mother, adopted a Trinitarian stance influenced strongly by Calvinism and Evangelicalism. Although the younger children were reared Unitarian, the tense atmosphere that existed in the household was certainly in part responsible for Frederick’s eventual decision to accept the notion of the divinity of Christ and to move closer toward Anglicanism, a faith he ultimately embraced in 1831.

Maurice was educated by his father to prepare for admission to Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1823. There, though he was not ready to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles (a condition required for receiving a degree), he pursued studies that would eventually prepare him for a career in law. He studied under Julius Hare, a compassionate and learned tutor who helped him explore various academic and theological questions. From Hare, he learned of the idea of Absolute Truth, and he was taught that it was each person’s responsibility to search for it. While at Cambridge, Maurice took the lead in forming a club for undergraduates who met periodically to discuss important political, philosophical, and literary subjects: the Apostles Club, perhaps the most famous of such societies, which eventually numbered among its members John Sterling, Arthur Henry Hallam, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

In 1826, Maurice left Cambridge without taking a degree and went to London to continue his study in law. There, he actually spent considerable time in literary activities, including service as editor for two separate periodicals. Maurice also worked on a novel, Eustace Conway , which was eventually published in 1834. Religious questions continued to plague him, however, and to “discipline” himself, as he put it, in his studies he decided to renew his formal education; this time, however, he enrolled in the more conservative Oxford University, where he associated with such men as the young William Ewart Gladstone. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Oxford in 1831.

The years 1831-1834 were crucial in Maurice’s spiritual development and hence in determining his future. In 1831, after years of contemplation and study, he converted to Anglicanism. Three years later, he took orders, embarking on a career that would bring him to prominence within a short time.

Life’s Work

Maurice began his ministry firmly convinced that the traditional view of religion based on the notion of the Fall was wrongheaded, for people had spent too much time wrangling over the problems of sin and damnation and had given too little attention to the fact that the essence of Christian theology was the presence (or potential presence) of Christ in every person. Maurice had been heavily influenced by theologians Edward Irving and Thomas Erskine, as well as by the religious writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His studies and his reading of the Bible led him to believe that faith must be based on God’s revelation of himself to people; people must, he thought, come to know God intimately, as a friend. That view he preached in his first curacy at Bubbenhall and for years while serving as chaplain at Guy’s Hospital, a post he assumed in the fall of 1835.

By 1835, Maurice had come to recognize that the Thirty-nine Articles were no inhibition to humankind’s personal search for God; certainly the requirement that young men subscribe to them was no cause for anyone to stay away from the universities. To support his position, Maurice published Subscription No Bondage (1835), in which he argued that the Articles simply provided a framework within which theological inquiry could proceed; they were not, he claimed, a set of rules that limited one’s exploration for the truth. This position seemed to place him in alignment with members of the Oxford Movement, but Maurice was not ready to go as far as the most extreme thinkers of that group. He broke with them openly over the question of the nature of baptism, which he saw as a sign of the continuing relationship God has with every person.

Growing increasingly dissatisfied with such tenets as the Oxford Movement proposed and with other issues with which he found himself continually at odds, Maurice decided to outline his own theological beliefs in a series of “Letters to a Quaker.” These sermons he published in 1838 as The Kingdom of Christ , a volume he revised in 1842 in order to clarify his basic beliefs. In that work, Maurice displayed his dissatisfaction with the Tractarians of Oxford and affirmed his notion that human beings are saved through personal relationships with Christ. For Maurice, the Kingdom of Heaven already exists—in every person who has established this relationship.

During the 1830’s, Maurice’s friendship with Sterling led to marriage for the theologian. Though shy and unassuming by nature, Maurice was not without passion, and during 1837 he found a woman who stirred feelings of love within him: Anna Barton, Sterling’s sister-in-law. The two were married on October 7, 1837, and were soon blessed with two sons. Anna Maurice did not live to see her children grow up or her husband bring to fruition many of the projects and publications for which he is most remembered; she died of illness in March, 1845.

Maurice was selected to serve as professor of English literature and modern history at King’s College, London, in 1840. Not a strong lecturer, he nevertheless captivated audiences with the sincerity of his presentations and remained popular and influential in the various professorships he held throughout his career.

When, in 1846, King’s College established a program of religious studies, Maurice was given an additional appointment as professor of theology, a position that permitted him to influence young men who were themselves training for the clergy. The same year, he was appointed chaplain at Lincoln’s Inn, where his weekly sermons were well received by the young men studying for the bar. During the same period, he was asked to deliver several lecture series. As the Boyle Lecturer, he pioneered the study of comparative religions; as the Warburton Lecturer, he spoke eloquently on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews.

During the 1840’s, Maurice began to attract a following, both through his teaching and especially through his writings. In 1844, influenced by his reading of The Kingdom of Christ, author and social workerCharles Kingsley began a lifelong friendship with Maurice. They were joined by J. M. Ludlow, a more radical socialist, in an effort to help improve the living conditions and the education of the London poor; their movement became known as Christian Socialism . Ludlow pressed for more radical solutions to current ills, but Maurice held out to effect such reforms within existing social and political structures.

The trio engaged in several schemes, including publication of several journals, to assist the working poor and to raise the conscience of their countrymen to the plight of the less fortunate. In 1848, Maurice and his followers were first encouraged and then dismayed by the rise and subsequent collapse of the Chartist movement.

By the end of the 1840’s, Maurice’s personal life took a new turn. He had always been close to his old tutor, Julius Hare, who had married Maurice’s sister Esther in 1844. In 1848 and 1849, Maurice was finding another reason to visit the Hare family: Julius’s sister Georgiana. They became engaged early in 1849 and were married July 4 of that year.

Because his appointment at King’s College, Maurice had devoted much of his life to education. That commitment went beyond his lecturing; for example, in 1848 he was instrumental in establishing Queen’s College to educate young women. As early as 1850, Maurice was working to promote education for working men as a means of bettering their lot. His first efforts were directed at assisting various Working Men’s associations to conduct independent programs, but it was not long before he found himself at the center of a movement to establish the Working Men’s College. Perhaps he would not have been as heavily involved as he eventually became had it not been for a change in his fortunes at King’s College.

Maurice was freed of his commitment to King’s College in 1853—but not because he had sought release. On the contrary, he was dismissed from his professorships, largely through the efforts of the principal of the college, Dr. Jelf, and conservative members of the Board of Trustees, who objected to his position on eternal punishment, published in his Theological Essays (1853). Though his prose was never crystal-clear to even the most discerning reader, Maurice seemed to suggest in Theological Essays that he could not accept the notion of eternal punishment. To theologians educated in a system that stressed the significance of the Fall and the ever-present threat of eternal damnation, such an idea appeared heretical. Despite objections from some board members, including Gladstone, the trustees voted to oust Maurice from the college.

That dismissal proved fortunate in some ways, because it permitted Maurice to become principal of the Working Men’s College, which opened in 1854. Men who labored by day in London’s factories and trade shops attended classes in the evenings. The college offered instruction in a number of subjects and attracted a faculty of noteworthy educators and intellectuals, including John Ruskin, who taught drawing.

Though he was no longer a professor of theology after 1853, Maurice continued to be an important voice on theological issues for the next decade and to cause consternation among those who opposed what they considered to be Maurice’s unorthodox views. His appointment to St. Peter Vere Chapel in 1860, made by the Crown through the Board of Public Works, caused quite a stir; the editors of the Record, a paper long opposed to Maurice, lobbied to have the appointment canceled. Maurice continued to publish his own theology in volumes and pamphlets, the most important of which were What Is Revelation? (1859), The Claims of the Bible and of Science (1863), and Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (1850-1862). These works, and his criticisms of the works of others, showed the essentially conservative bias of his thinking, despite his liberal notions about Hell. He objected strongly to the controversial collection of radical religious writings Essays and Reviews (1860), which argued that the Bible should be criticized in the same fashion as other books. Similarly, he took issue with Bishop John Colenso over the publication of the bishop’s study The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined (1862-1879), because Colenso argued that some of the writings were forgeries.

In 1866, Maurice finally regained a position within the traditional academic community when Cambridge University appointed him Knightsbridge Professor of Casuistry, Moral Theology and Moral Philosophy. He held the appointment until his death. Failing health caused him to reduce his work as the decade turned; he finally succumbed on April 1, 1872, and was buried in the family plot at Highgate.

Significance

No theologian in the nineteenth century was more committed to the idea that the Church should be one than was Frederick Denison Maurice. His constant attempts to show that sectarian division was artificial and against the will of God influenced many in his lifetime and became an important source of inspiration for later theologians and clergy. Even more significant was Maurice’s insistence on the personal relationship that exists between God and humankind, a commitment that led him to pronounce that the Kingdom of God exists in every person who comes to know his or her maker personally. Not only in theology, though, has Maurice’s impact been felt in England: The Christian Socialist movement was important in the steady progress that liberalism made during the century to improve the lot of the poor and the working classes and to promote the dignity of the individual. Modern British democracy owes a debt to Maurice for his work in this area.

Bibliography

Brose, Olive J. Frederick Denison Maurice: Rebellious Conformist. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1971. A scholarly study of Maurice, focusing on the influence he exerted on Victorian theological issues. Especially detailed analysis of Maurice’s conversion to Anglicanism and its impact on his life and opinions.

Courtney, Janet E. Freethinkers of the Nineteenth Century. Reprint. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1967. Reprinted from the original 1920 edition, this book includes a brief biographical sketch of Maurice as well as similar sketches of other important intellectuals in nineteenth century England.

Davies, W. Merlin. An Introduction to F. D. Maurice’s Theology. London: S.P.C.K., 1964. Largely based on Maurice’s important work, The Kingdom of Christ, this study presents a summary of his theology, making a strong case for the primacy of Maurice’s belief in Christ and his personal relationship with God as an underpinning of his work as a social and educational reformer.

Higham, Florence. Frederick Denison Maurice. London: S.C.M. Press, 1947. A brief, conversationally written biography that highlights Maurice’s movement toward acceptance of Christian Socialism as a necessary consequence of his theological inquiry. Contains a good discussion of his association with Working Men’s College and with such figures as Richard Trench, John Sterling, Charles Kingsley, J. M. Ludlow, and F. J. Furnivall.

Maurice, Frederick. The Life of Frederick Denison Maurice. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1884. Lengthy biography compiled by Maurice’s son from letters, family papers, and reminiscences provided by friends. Contains hundreds of important excerpts from Maurice’s letters. A primary source of information for scholars and for others interested in Maurice’s life and opinions.

Rogerson, J. W. The Bible and Criticism in Victorian Britain: Profiles of F. D. Maurice and William Robertson Smith. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995. Examines the Old Testament interpretations of Maurice and Smith.

Schroeder, Steven. The Metaphysics of Cooperation: A Case Study of F. D. Maurice. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. An analysis of Maurice’s theological views, placed within the context of Victorian Britain and the ideas of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Vidler, Alec R. Witness to the Light: F. D. Maurice’s Message for To-day. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948. An extensive analysis of Maurice’s theological views, relying heavily on excerpts from Maurice’s own writings. Contains a chapter on Maurice’s views of Christian Socialism, including his assessment of the relationship between individual nations and established religions.

Wood, H. G. Frederick Denison Maurice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1950. A series of lectures outlining Maurice’s theological position, examining his critique of Newman’s writings and statements, and commenting on Maurice’s study of comparative religion.

Young, David. F. D. Maurice and Unitarianism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Analyzes the influence of Unitarianism on Maurice’s life and teaching.