George Tyrrell
SJ | |
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Orders | |
Ordination | 1891 |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | 15 July 1909 Storrington, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | (aged 48)
Denomination | Roman Catholic, Latin Church |
Occupation |
|
George Tyrrell
Early life
Tyrrell was born on 6 February 1861 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, a journalist, died shortly before Tyrrell was born. George was first cousin to Irish classical scholar Robert Yelverton Tyrrell. A childhood accident resulted in George eventually becoming deaf in the right ear.[1] The family had to move repeatedly due to financial straits.
Tyrrell was brought up as an
Jesuit
In the spring of 1879, at Dolling's invitation, Tyrrell went to London to work for the
As early as 1882, his novice master suggested that Tyrrell withdraw from the Jesuits due to a "mental indocility" and a dissatisfaction with a number of Jesuit customs, approaches, and practices. Tyrrell was, however, allowed to remain. He later stated that he believed he was more inclined to the
After taking his first vows, Tyrrell was sent to
After a brief period of pastoral work in Lancashire, Tyrrell returned to Roehampton for his Tertianship. In 1893, he lived briefly at the Jesuit mission house in Oxford, before taking up pastoral work at St Helens, Merseyside, where he was reportedly happiest during his time as a Jesuit. A little over a year later, he was sent to teach philosophy at Stonyhurst. Tyrrell then began to have serious conflicts with his superiors over the traditional Jesuit approach to teaching philosophy.[2]
Pope Leo XIII's 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris had promoted the teaching of a Scholastic philosophy, based on the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Catholic schools and seminaries. Tyrrell admired Aquinas, but he rejected the Scholastic approach as inadequate. He became convinced that the Jesuits were not teaching the work of Aquinas himself, but rather the narrow interpretation of it introduced by Jesuit theologian Francisco Suárez.
In 1896, Tyrrell was transferred to the Jesuit House on Farm Street in London.[3] There Tyrrell discovered the work of Maurice Blondel. He was also influenced by Alfred Loisy's biblical scholarship. Tyrrell first met Friedrich von Hügel in October 1897 and they became close friends. Part of Tyrrell's work while at Farm Street was writing articles for the Jesuit periodical The Month. He had the occasion to review some works by Wilfrid Ward, and for a time, came to share Ward's view of moderate liberalism.
Modernist controversy
Between 1891 and 1906, Tyrrell published more than twenty articles in Catholic periodicals, many of them in the United States.[4] In 1899 Tyrrell published A Perverted Devotion. The article concerned the concept of hell. Given "the essential incapacity of finite mind to seize the absolute end which governs and moves everything towards itself",[5] Tyrrell recognized that some subjects were matters of "faith and mystery". He "preferred to admit that the Christian doctrine of hell as simply a very great mystery, one difficult to reconcile with any just appreciation of the concept of an all-loving God".[6] He argued that the rationalist approach of the Scholastics was not applicable to matters of faith. Although reviewed by a number of English Jesuits, including Herbert Thurston, who found no fault with it, the Father General determined that it was "offensive to pious ears". Tyrrell was assigned to a small mission in Richmond, where he deeply appreciated the peace and quiet. In January 1901, he declined a re-assignment back to St. Helen's.
Tyrrell was critical both of the Catholic neo-Scholasticism and of the
Expulsion and excommunication
Asked in 1906 to repudiate his theories, Tyrrell declined and was dismissed from the Jesuits by
With the condemnation of modernism, first in the 65 propositions of the decree
In his rebuttal of Pius X's encyclical, Tyrrell alleged that the Church's thinking was based on a
Unlike
Death
Tyrrell's last two years were spent mainly in
A near contemporary account on The New York Times places most of the blame for the disagreement between the modern Catholic philosophers and the Vatican on Cardinal Merry del Val's "irreconcilable and reactionary attitude".[13]
Selected writings
- Nova et Vetera: Informal Meditations, 1897
- Hard Sayings: A Selection of Meditations and Studies, Longmans, Green & Co., 1898
- External Religion: Its Use and Abuse, B. Herder, 1899
- The Faith of the Millions 1901
- Lex Orandi: or, Prayer & Creed, Longmans, Green & Co., 1903
- Lex Credendi: A Sequel to Lex Orandi, Longmans, Green & Co., 1906
- Through Scylla and Charybdis: or, The Old Theology and the New, Longmans, Green & Co., 1907[14]
- A Much-Abused Letter, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907
- Medievalism: A Reply to Cardinal Mercier, Longmans, Green, and Co. 1908
- The Church and the Future, The Priory Press, 1910
- Christianity at the Cross-Roads, Longmans, Green and Co., 1910
- Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell, Edward Arnold, 1912[15]
- Essays on Faith and Immortality, Edward Arnold, 1914
Articles
- "The Clergy and the Social Problem," The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XXII, 1897.
- "The Old Faith and the New Woman", The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XXII, 1897.
- "The Church and Scholasticism", The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIII, 1898.
References
- ^ a b c Tyrrell, George. Autobiography of George Tyrrell, 1861-1884, Longmans, Green & Company, 1912, p. 33 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ a b c Rafferty, Oliver, S.J. "George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism", Thinking Faith 6 July 2009
- ^ a b Hurley, Michael, S.J. "George Tyrrell and John Sullivan: Sinner and Saint?", Thinking Faith, 14 July 2009
- ^ Portier, William L. "George Tyrrell in America." U.S. Catholic Historian, vol. 20, no. 3, 2002, pp. 69–95. JSTOR
- ^ Tyrrell, George. Life of George Tyrrell from 1884 to 1909, Longmans, Green & Company, 1912, p. 118 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ISBN 9780521081788
- ^ George Tyrrell, Christianity at the Crossroads (1913 ed.), pg. 44
- ISBN 978-1-4299-3508-1. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ "The Pope and Modernism", Father Tyrrell's Articles, at The West Australian (Perth, WA), 2 November 1907, p. 2. Also available at Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, 5 November 1907, page 1.
- S2CID 188218619.
- ^ Fergus Kerr, Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians (Blackwell, 2007, p. 5)
- ^ SOFN.org Archived 29 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
- ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ "Review of Through Scylla and Charybdis: or, the Old Theology and the New by George Tyrrell". The Athenaeum (4171): 395–396. 5 October 1907.
- ^ "Review of Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell". The Athenaeum (4436): 509–510. 2 November 1912.
Further reading
- Chappell, Jonathan W. (2018). "Beyond 'The Warfare of Science with Theology': George Tyrrell's Plea for Epistemic Humility," Science and Christian Belief, Vol 30, No 1., pp. 3–37.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 550–551.
- Davies, Michael (1983). "The Sad Story of George Tyrrell", Ch. 13 of Partisans of Error: St. Pius X Against the Modernists. Long Prairie, Minnesota: The Neumann Press.
- Inge, William Ralph (1919). "Roman Catholic Modernism."In: Outspoken Essays. London: Longmans, Green & Co., pp. 137–171.
- ISBN 0809124246
- Maher, Anthony M. (2018). 'The Forgotten Jesuit of Catholic Modernism: George Tyrrell's Prophetic Theology.' Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press.
- May, J. Lewis (1932). Father Tyrrell and the Modernist Movement. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.
- Moore, J.F. (1920). "The Meaning of Modernism," The University Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 2, pp. 172–178.
- Petre, Maude (1912). Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell. London: E. Arnold.
- Rafferty, Oliver P. (ed.) (2010). George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism. Dublin: Four Courts Press, ISBN 978-1-846-82236-0.
- Ratté, John (1967). Three Modernists: Alfred Loisy, George Tyrrell, William L. Sullivan. New York: Sheed & Ward.
- Rigg, James McMullen (1912). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. . In
- Root, John D. (1977). "English Catholic Modernism and Science: The Case of George Tyrrell," The Heythrop Journal, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, pp. 271–288.
- Sagovsky, Nicholas (1990). On God's Side: A Life of George Tyrrell. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Sagovsky, Nicholas. "Tyrrell, George (1861–1909)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36606. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Savage, Allan (2012). The "Avant-Garde" Theology of George Tyrrell: Its Philosophical Roots Changed My Theological Thinking. (CreateSpace.com)
- Schultenover, David G. (1981). George Tyrrell: In Search of Catholicism. Shepherdstown, West Virginia: Patmos Press.
- Wells, David F. (1972). "The Pope as Antichrist: The Substance of George Tyrrell's Polemic," Harvard Theological Review, Vol. LXV, No. 2, pp. 271–283.
- Wells, David F. (1979). The Prophetic Theology of George Tyrrell. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.
- Utz, Richard (2010). "Pi(o)us Medievalism vs. Catholic Modernism: The Case Of George Tyrell." In: The Year's Work in Medievalism, Vol. XXV. Eugene, Or.: Wipf & Stock Publishers, pp. 6–11.