Frederick Denison Maurice

Priest, Professor, Theologian, AuthorFounder of Christian SocialistsAugust 29, 1805-April 1, 1872

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Frederick Denison MauriceAugust 29, 1805-April 1, 1872I wanted a daguerreotype rather than a painting because a daguerreotype tells the real story

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Frederick Denison Maurice

• Born in Normanton, Suffolk to a controversial progressive Unitarian minister

• Studied civil law at Trinity College, Cambridge, starting in 1823

• Refused the law degree in 1827 because he could not subscribe to the 39 Articles of Religion as was required by the university

• Later converted to the Anglican Church in the wake of several personal problems

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Pastoral Career

• Returned to school at Exeter College, Oxford to study towards ordination

• Graduated in 1831 with a classics degree

• Ordained as Anglican priest in 1834• Chaplain of Guy’s Hospital• Rector of two parishes, including St.

Peter’s, Vere St.Lent, 2011

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Teaching Career

• Professor of English literature and history at King’s College, London– In 1846 became chair of theology– Dismissed from these in 1853 for involvement

in the Christian Socialist movement

• Resumed teaching at Queen’s College, London, which he co-founded

• Founded the Working Men’s College• Professor of moral theology at Cambridge

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19th c Christian Socialist movement

• Formed in 1848 by Maurice, Charles Kingsley (novelist), and J. M. Ludlow (attorney) following plethora of crushed revolutions

• Exported writings precipitated development of US Protestant Social Gospel movement

• Collapsed in 1854 b/c of poor organization• US Social Gospel movement persisted until

disillusionment by WWI

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Major Bibliography of F. D. Maurice

• The Kingdom of Christ (1838)– Investigated the causes and remedies of

schisms– A much respected work of ecumenical

literature to this very day

• Theological Essays (1853)– The “unorthodox” (read socialist) perspectives

cost him his professorships at King’s College– King’s College now has an F. D. Maurice

Professorship in Moral and Social Theology ;-)

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Bibliography, cont’d

• Eustace Conway, or the Brother and Sister– A novel

• The Unity of the New Testament• The Epistle to the Hebrews• The Religions of the World• Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy• The Church a Family

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Bibliography, cont’d

• The Old Testament• The Prophets and Kings of the Old

Testament• Lectures on Ecclesiastical History• The Doctrine of Sacrifice• The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the

Old Testament

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Bibliography, cont’d

• The Epistles of St. John• The Commandments as Instruments

of National Reformation• On the Gospel of St. Luke• The Conscience: Lectures on

Casuistry• The Lord’s Prayer: A Manual–Many originated as sermons or lectures

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Quotations

• “We have been dosing our people with religion when what they want is not this but the living God.”

• “Competition is put forth as the law of the universe. That is a lie. The time has come for us to declare that it is a lie, by word and deed.”

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Quotations, cont’d

• “Christian Socialism will commit us at once to the conflict we must engage in sooner or later with the unsocial Christians and the unchristian Socialists.”

• “I do not think we are to praise the liturgy but to use it. When we do not want it for our life, we may begin to talk of it as a beautiful composition.”Lent, 2011

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Personal life

• First wife was Anna Barton, sister-in-law of close friend John Sterling

• Second wife was half-sister of another friend

• One son, Sir John Frederick Maurice• One grandson, Frederick Barton

Maurice– Also principal of the Working Men’s

College in the post WWI eraLent, 2011

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Collect of F. D. Maurice

Almighty God, you restored our human nature to heavenly glory through the perfect obedience of our Savior Jesus Christ: Keep alive in your Church, we pray, a passion for justice and truth; that, like your servant Frederick Denison Maurice, we may work and pray for the triumph of the kingdom of your Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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Sources

• Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2000• Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in

Plain Language, 2nd ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995.

• Wikipedia

Lent, 2011