141 - William Temple: Twentieth Century Christian & Soccial Concern In the Thought Of William Temple

William Temple: Twentieth Century Christian
By Joseph Fletcher
372 pp. New York, Seabury Press, 1963. $7.50.

Soccial Concern In the Thought Of William Temple
By Robert Craig
160 pp. Naperville, Illinois, Alec R. Allenson, 1963. $5.50.

Very occasionally, there comes into one's hands a book which one longs to commend to others with such persuasiveness that their reading of it will be irresistible as well as mandatory. Obviously, it must treat of a central, if not the central, issue in current thinking, and with an authority matched by grace.

Such a book is Dr. Fletcher's. To begin with, it is far and away the most comprehensive, perceptive and definitive exposition of the thought of one who, by general recognition, was the foremost Christian statesman of the first half of the Twentieth Century. The thoroughness of Professor Fletcher's research is attested by a Bibilography, "more nearly complete than any published to date," of over 300 items. A large proportion of this corpus has been drawn upon for threads, woven with consummate skill into a tapestry which truly suggests on the one hand the range and richness and on the other hand the inner consistency of a mind and spirit which were, above all, an organic unity. Beyond that, over a third of the volume is devoted to two no less valuable supplements-a "Biographical Sketch" which should not be bypassed even by those who knew Temple personally or are already familiar with Canon Iremonger's official biography, and some 250 "Notes" filling over 50 close-packed pages which are, under no circumstances, to be overlooked since they embody some of the richest material and most acute comments.

Dr. Fletcher rightly recognizes Archbishop Temple as first and last a "Constructive Theologian," and Part I sets forth with lucidity and balance the "abiding core categories" of his and all Christian theology.

"Part II: Ecumenical Theology" is the briefest and least adequate. The author's justification: "He did less theorizing on that score, but

142 - William Temple: Twentieth Century Christian & Soccial Concern In the Thought Of William Temple

acted fully, labored abundantly" is not wholly convincing. There is still need for at least one more essential treatment: "William Temple: Ecumenical Statesman and Theologian."

The concluding Part III deals with Temple's "Social Theology." Here, Dr. Craig takes up the story more fully and in a different perspective, supplying useful supplementation.

The importance of these volumes lies in the significance of their subject, not as church statesman but as Christian theologian. Dr. Walter Marshall Horton, in his Contemporary English Theology (1941), rightly identified Temple as a, perhaps the, "centrist" theologian. William Temple's centrality, however, was not that of one who happened to stand near mid-point of the theological spectrum of his day, between then prevailing extremes. He stood very close to the center of historic and authentic Christian Faith. If the present generation of theologians are out of speaking distance, this does not prove Temple's "datedness"; it is evidence of how far "off center" they have wandered.

No voice is better qualified to call Christian thinkers back to center. But will they, can they, listen?

Henry P. Van Dusen
Princeton, New Jersey