Abstract
Austin Farrer’s stock has risen since his death in 1968 thanks to the devotion of his English disciples Leslie Houlden, Basil Mitchell, Richard Harries, and Brian Hebblethwaite, and his last pupils John Barton and John Muddiman, the research and editorial diligence of Charles Conti, and the 1985 biography by Philip Curtis.
This latest conference volume is padded out with four lectures Farrer gave in America in 1966. These will not enhance his reputation, but as the blurb says, ‘every Farrer enthusiast will want to have these significant new texts at hand’. Others not so much. Like his Anglo-Catholic friends Michael Ramsey and Eric Mascall he was unsympathetic to the liberal theologies of the 1960s and seems to have made little attempt to understand what he was opposing. He therefore has a new posthumous following. His disdain for footnotes makes it hard to know how far his generalisations were based on his admittedly limited reading of what he did not like, but at times his luminosity in ‘constantly rethinking our tradition and winnowing out the chaff and retesting it by its origins’ (p. 130) breaks through. He claims to be simply telling you (his Dallas audience) Christian platitutes, what else can I tell you? We cannot brush up the essentials of Christian theology as something new, we can only rediscover what is old, for it was revealed. That consummation towards which we look is that which gives all its decisive meaning and importance to the spiritual life here. The Christians of the first generation . . . were concerned with the realisation in human existence of the life of Christ, an instrument in the divinisation of man, because the Son of God had come and taken human nature so that he might associate us with Everlasting Deity (p. 117).
It is only the historical claim there that confirms that the theologian Farrer was a poor historian, for all his emphasis on its importance. But his contempt for New Testament scholarship (shared by C.S. Lewis), and his apparent ignorance of history of traditions research, should not obscure his seriousness as a student of the texts or the genuine insights in his Study of Mark, even if his famous article ‘On Dispensing with Q’ (echoing the 1907 Oxford monograph of E.W. Lummis) has been overrated by those who think he was right. His reputation rests on his philosophical theology and his ‘Farrergraphs’ and sermons, but his Anglo-Catholic theology, summarized in a few lines on p.130, deserves more respect than it often receives today.
The five lectures of the 2019 Keble conference admire his gospels work (Mark Goodacre, a grand-pupil of Farrer through the late lamented Michael Goulder), his 1962 Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited – arguably his worst book - (Michael Lloyd), his relationship with C.S. Lewis (Judith Wolfe) and his preaching (John Barton – a welcome reprint from the 2016 Muddiman Festschrift). Those interested in Keble College politics will enjoy Ian Archer’s account of Farrer’s mixed record as Warden, including doubts about his appointment recorded in a don’s diary discussing the shortlist: ‘Styler was safe but unexciting, Nineham exciting but dangerous, Farrer undoubtedly the strongest claimant as a scholar, but doubtful as regards personality. I cannot believe the Church of England is so utterly destitute of men with both the humour and the intellectual qualifications as is requisite’ (p.18). Anyone tempted to echo that judgment 50 years later should ponder Rowan Williams’ profound discussion of Farrer in his Hulsean lectures on Christ the Heart of Creation.
The editors provide an introduction and an appropriate sermon by Stephen Platten as Epilogue. The book is attractively produced but expensively priced.