Oxford Movement:
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Write a short note on the Oxford movement.
Or
Write an essay on Tractarian movement what
were the changes it brought in English Society.
Answer:- The
oxford movement, which is also known as ‘The Tractarian Movement, was
fundamentally religious in nature and had nothing to do with Tory-politics. It
was not a political movement but as it opposed liberalism in all its aspects,
the Oxford leaders derived much from the philosophy of conservatism. Among the
various aims of the Oxford movement was to rehabilitate the dignity of the
Church, to defend the Church against the interference of the State, to fight
against liberalism, to resort reverence for the sacraments, rituals and dogmas
of the Roman Catholic faith.
In this word of Professor Gates, “The
Oxford Movement was in its essence an attempt to reconstruct the English church
in harmony with romantic (medieval) ideal.” Moody and Lovett also remark, “The
Oxford Movement stood for the restoration of the poetry, the mystic symbolism,
the spiritual power and beauty of architecture, ritual and service which had characterized
the Catholic Church in the middle Ages.” The Oxford movement was opposed to
rationalism in matters concerned with the Church. It is hard to agree with G.K
Chesterton when he writes in his book ‘The Victorian Age in Literature’ that, ‘The
Oxford Movement’ was, out of very roots of its being, a rational movements;
almost a rationalist movement.”
Thomas Arnold who fastened on
the ethical significance of Christianity and minimized the importance of ritual
of ‘theological Articles of opinion’. The idea of the Visible Church, a Divine
Society instituted by Christ, with its sacraments, its rites, its priesthood
and its hierarchical appointments was repugnant to Dr. Arnold and one of the
aims of the Oxford leaders was to oppose liberalism of Dr. Arnold tooth and
nail.
With the unprecedented growth of
science in the 19th century there was a growing demand that religion
should be put to the test of rationalist scientific examination. T.H. Huxley
and many others turned agnostics when they failed to test religious faith on
the touchstone of science. The Oxford movement stood against too much
insistence on reason and proof in religious matters, and sought to revive the faith,
rituals and dogmas of Roman Catholic religion. To quote Hugh Walker, “The
mainspring of the Oxford Movement was the dread of rationalism as he saw it in England.”
The aggressive anti-rationalism manifested itself in the Oxford men’s
affirmation of miracles associated with the history of ancient church and the
numerous saints.
The Oxford movement stood
against the secular authority interfering in the affairs of the Church. The
Church was subjected to secular authority. The grave inconvenience that arose
from her connexion with the State had been demonstrated by Lord Melbourne to
the post of Religious Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford. His idea
of dogma as being a pure matter of opinion gave great offence not only to the
orthodox High Churchmen but to the Evangelicals as well. This incident created
much dissatisfaction and the Oxford Men advanced the view that the State should
make the church free because it was more than a merely human institution. Moody
and Lovett rightly remark in this connexion, “Newman and his friend wished also
to defend the Church, in view was disposed to reform it along with Parliament
and other institution, curtailing its
power and revenues.
The history of the Oxford movement:
Oxford movement members
1. John
Keble:- John Henry Newman was the summary and
expression of the New Catholic Movement,
but the originator of the Oxford movement was John Keble, who was the professor
of poetry at oxford. He was the disciple of Wordsworth. In July 1833 Keble
preached a sermon of the ‘National Apostasy’ and this sermon formally
inaugurated the Oxford movement. Even Newman accepted Keble as its ‘true and primary
author’. But the fact remains that fuel had been gathering for years, and Keble
chanced to light it. Keble was saintly, simple, quiet, modest and sweet
natured-soul without having literary pretensions. A life of meekness,
simplicity, and sanctity had its charm, but the times required a man of unique
caliber and he who answered to that description was not the meek, saint-like
Keble but a genius named John Henry Newman.
2. John Henry
Newman. :
John
Henry Newman was the soul and spirit behind the Oxford movement. He was a
genius of broad sweep, and wider range. “He had climbed the spiritual peak and
glimpsed the illimitable sea, the sea that like a glittering girdle encompasses
the world. He had seen the melting horizons, on his ear had fallen the Eternal
voice, the diapason of the many-sounding deep.” He began as a Protestant and
ended as a Roman Catholic. He took this decisive step by his dislike of
liberalism and his indignation against the interference of the State in the
church affairs. After his return from the continent in 1832, he joined the
Oxford movement and soon became its chief pilot. He wrote many of the tracts
and his one famous tract ‘Tract XC’, provided violence criticism against him so
much so that he took refuge at Littlemore. In 1845, he was converted to the
Roman Catholic faith and was made the cardinal in 1879.
Newman’s conversation to Roman
Catholic was assailed by Charles Kingsley who charged Newman of insincerity and
a cleverly devised plot to win a large number of his followers to the Newman
came out with his magnum opus ‘Apologia
Pro Vita Sua’ which is a kind of spiritual autobiography. In this work Newman
traced his religious history, showing “that his conversation was only the final
step in a course he had been following since boyhood.” Praising ‘Apologia
Pro Vita Sua’ W.J. Long says, “As a
revelation of soul’s history and as a model of pure, simple, unaffected
English, this book, entirely apart from its doctrinal teaching, deserves high place in our prose, literature.”
Newman’s other works worth mention are ‘Essay of the Development of Christian
Doctrine’, ‘The Idea of a University Defined’ and his two novels ‘Loss and
‘Gain’ and ‘Calista’. He is also remembered by his famous poem ‘Lead, Kindly
Light’.
3. Richard
Hurrel-
Richard
Hurrel Forude, who is chiefly known for his ‘Remains’ and ‘two of the
Tract s for the Time’ and few poems, was a brilliant man. He was a link between
Keble and Newman.
4. Froude
It was Froude who, by his ardent desire to
bring back the church of England to the Catholic traditions it had so long forsaken,
first set Newman one the path that was to lead him at last to Rome. In words of
J.L. May, “Froude’s part in the Movement was brief, but it was all important.
He was the match that fired the train. He brought Keble and Newman to
understand each other, and that was an achievement pregnant with consequences.”
5. Edward
Pusey-
Edward Pusey, who originated Puseyism, the
form of Anglicanism which came nearest to Rome without being merged into
Romanism, was a man of wide learning. He was one of the protagonists of the
Oxford movement but, he was no match to Newman. In the words of
Compton-Rickett, “He is far less attractive as a personality, more questionable
in his methods and immeasurably inferior as a literary craftsman.”
6. Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti who is described as
“Probably the greatest of English women poets” and “the finest of English
poetesses” accepted Catholic theology of the English Church. She is well known
for ‘Goblin Market’ and other poems like ‘The Prince’s Progress’, Sing-Song’ ‘A Pageant and other Poems’, and ‘New Poems.’
7. Gerard Manly Hopkins
Gerard Manly Hopkins followed Newman for the
Anglican to the Roman Church in 1866.
8. Coventry Patmore
Caventry Patmore, a Catholic poet, wrote ‘The
Angel in the House’, ‘the unknown Eros’ and other poems. Praising his poems
Hopkins wrote, “Your poems are a good deed done for the Catholic Church, for
England, for the British Empire.”
9. Richard Watson Dixon wrote some religious
verses partly in the manner of Blake, partly in that of the Pre-Raphaelites.
The
few more names connected with the Oxford movement are those of W.G Ward, the
writer of ‘Idea of a Christian Church’.
R.W. Church, the man who wrote ‘the objective history of the Oxford
Movement’ which was published in 1891.
Cardinal Wiseman, author of the ‘Fabiola’ and ‘Cardinal Manning’.
One
may go on recounting the names but if one understand Newman and his relation with
the Oxford movement, one may grasp the spirit of the Movement. To understand
Newman is to understand the Oxford movement.
(Know this
point:-
*About
some authors
*The
History of the Oxford movement
*Effect on
the intellectual life of the time)
The Oxford movement was a revival of Roman
Catholic doctrine within the Anglican Church in the fast half of the nineteenth
century. The Oxford movement had been understood as a reaction against the
conventional understanding of religion in Victorian Britain; govern mental
involvement secularism that accompanied the rising importance of economic
structure and the Enlightenment. It was not a political movement but as it
opposed liberalism in all its aspects, the oxford leaders derived much from
movement were to rehabilitate the dignity were to rehabilitates the dignity of
the Church to defend the church against the interference of the state and to
restore the rituals and dogmas of the Roman Catholic faith.
Calling
for a return to the beliefs of Christianity the leaders of the Oxford movement
emphasized religious Dogma, and certainty of religious dogma, and certainty of
faith and its practice in day-today today life. This movement opposed
rationalism in all matters concerned with the church. With the unprecedented
growth of science in the 19th century, there was a growing demand
that religion should be put to the rest of rational scientific examination and
it should cross the touchstone of scientific examination of science. The Oxford
movement stood against too much insistence on reason and proof in religious
matters. The movement was allied with the Romantic Movement and derived much
inspiration from the middle Ages. The Oxford movement was in its essence an
attempt to reconstruct the English Church in harmony with the medieval ideas.
This movement indebted much to Coleridge and Scott, who turned men’s minds in
the direction of the middle Ages. There is much teeth in there mark that the
real not that of Keble or New man was Walter Scott and Chis Waverly novels.
The
official beginning of the Oxford movement it’s marked by John Kelli’s “Oxford
Assize Sermon” which was published as “National Apostasy” an July14, 1833,
which focused on the problem of diminishing power of the Anglican Church.
Richard Hurrell Froude, Robert Wilberforce and Isoce Williams, all students of
keble would form the earliest core of the Oxford Movement. Two other major
figures who were also taught at Oxford University named John Heanry Newman and
Edward Pusey who joined to this movement. All of these men saw the Anglican Church
as undergoing a period of crisis tore-establish its supremacy. A series of
printed pamphlets known as “Tracts for the Times” attracted the attention both
within and outside Oxford and its Tractarianism. Through these pamphlets the
leaders of the Oxford movement gained increasing influence at the University.
Last
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Anglican Church. Its emphasis on the importance
of faith entailed relative to other major political and religious cause of the
period. Although most scholars agree that the Oxford movement failed to attain
popular support within the Anglican Church and after its brief heyday it lost
its force and popularity. But this movement successfully challenged the disfiguration
of church authority and the unreflective growth of secularism in Britain.