George Tyrrell: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Irish Jesuit priest (1861–1909)}} |
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{{for-multi|the Union Army Medal of Honor recipient|George William Tyrrell|the British geologist and glaciologist|George Walter Tyrrell|the British mathematician, physicist, radio engineer and parapsychologist|George Nugent Merle Tyrrell}} |
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{{Infobox Christian leader |
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| name = George Tyrrell |
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'''George Tyrrell''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} (6 February 1861 – 15 July 1909) was an [[ |
'''George Tyrrell''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} (6 February 1861 – 15 July 1909) was an [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] priest and a highly controversial theologian and scholar. A convert from [[Anglicanism]], Tyrrell joined the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit order]] in 1880. His attempts to adapt [[Catholic theology]] to modern culture and science made him a key figure in the controversy over [[modernism in the Catholic Church]] that flared up in the late 19th-century. During the anti-modernist crusade led by [[Pope Pius X]], Tyrrell was expelled from the Jesuit Order in 1906 and [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] in 1908. |
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==Early life== |
==Early life== |
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Tyrrell was born on 6 February 1861 in |
George Tyrrell was born on 6 February 1861 in the city of [[Dublin]]. His father William Tyrrell, a journalist and sub-editor of the ''[[Dublin Evening Mail]]'', died shortly before George's birth. The Tyrrells belonged to the [[Protestant Ascendancy]] in [[Ireland]] and were intellectually distinguished. George was a first cousin of the classicist [[Robert Yelverton Tyrrell]], who became [[Regius Professor of Greek (Dublin)|Regius Professor of Greek]] at [[Trinity College, Dublin]]. A childhood accident resulted in George eventually becoming deaf in the right ear.<ref name=autob>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mJSTWxigFEIC&dq=George+Tyrrell&pg=PA143 Tyrrell, George. ''Autobiography of George Tyrrell, 1861-1884'', Longmans, Green & Company, 1912, p. 33]{{PD-notice}}</ref> The family had to move repeatedly due to the financial straits in which it fell after the death of George's father. |
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George was brought up as an [[Anglican]] and around 1869 he attended [[Rathmines School]], near Dublin. He was educated from 1873 at [[Midleton College]], an institution affiliated with the [[Church of Ireland]], but his mother had difficulty affording the fees and he left early. In 1876–77, he studied privately in the hopes of earning a scholarship to study [[Hebrew]] at Trinity College, but he failed the required examination twice, much to the distress of his mother. Around 1877 he met [[Robert Dolling]], an [[Anglo-Catholicism|Anglo-Catholic]] priest who had a strong influence on him. In August 1878, Tyrrell took a teaching post at [[Wexford]] High School, but in October he matriculated at Trinity College, on the advice of Dolling, hoping to train for the Anglican ministry.<ref name=autob/> |
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==Jesuit== |
==Jesuit== |
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In the spring of 1879, at Dolling's invitation, Tyrrell went to London to work for the [[Saint Martin's League]], a sort of mission that Dolling was organizing. On Palm Sunday, |
In the spring of 1879, at Dolling's invitation, Tyrrell went to London to work for the [[Saint Martin's League]], a sort of mission that Dolling was organizing. On [[Palm Sunday]], Tyrrell wandered into [[St Etheldreda's Church, London|St Etheldreda's]], a Catholic church on [[Ely Place]]. He was powerfully struck by the Catholic Mass, about which he would say in his autobiography: "Here was the old business, being carried on by the old firm, in the old ways; here was continuity, that took one back to the catacombs."<ref name=autob/> He converted and was [[Catholicisation|received into the Catholic Church]] in 1879. He immediately applied to join the [[Society of Jesus]], but the provincial superior advised him to wait a year. He spent the interim teaching at Jesuit schools in [[Cyprus]] and [[Malta]].<ref name=Rafferty>[http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090706_1.htm Rafferty, Oliver, S.J. "George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism", ''Thinking Faith'' 6 July 2009]</ref> He joined the Jesuits in 1880 and was sent to the novitiate at [[Parkstead House|Manresa House]]. |
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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. |
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 [[Benedictine]] spirituality. |
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After taking his first vows, Tyrrell was sent to [[Stonyhurst College]] to study philosophy as the first |
After taking his first vows, Tyrrell was sent to [[Stonyhurst College]] to study philosophy as the first stage in his [[Jesuit formation]]. Having completed his studies at Stonyhurst, he next returned to the Jesuit school in Malta, where he spent three years teaching. He then went to [[St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre|St Beuno's College]], in Wales, to take up his theological studies. He was [[Holy Orders (Catholic Church)|ordained]] to the [[Priesthood (Catholic Church)|priesthood]] in 1891. |
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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.<ref name=Rafferty/> |
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|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.<ref name=Rafferty/> |
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[[Pope Leo XIII]]'s 1879 encyclical ''[[Aeterni Patris]]'' had promoted the teaching of a [[Scholasticism|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 by Jesuit theologian [[Francisco Suárez]]. |
[[Pope Leo XIII]]'s 1879 encyclical ''[[Aeterni Patris]]'' had promoted the teaching of a [[Scholasticism|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]]. |
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In 1896, Tyrrell was transferred to the Jesuit House on Farm Street in London.<ref name=Hurley>[http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090714_1.htm Hurley, Michael, S.J. "George Tyrrell and John Sullivan: Sinner and Saint?", ''Thinking Faith'', 14 July 2009]</ref> 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 |
In 1896, Tyrrell was transferred to the Jesuit House on Farm Street in London.<ref name=Hurley>[http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090714_1.htm Hurley, Michael, S.J. "George Tyrrell and John Sullivan: Sinner and Saint?", ''Thinking Faith'', 14 July 2009]</ref> 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. |
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==Modernist controversy== |
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⚫ | Between 1891 and 1906, Tyrrell published more than twenty articles in Catholic periodicals, many of them in the United States.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154819?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Portier, William L. "George Tyrrell in America." ''U.S. Catholic Historian'', vol. 20, no. 3, 2002, pp. 69–95. JSTOR]</ref> 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",<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=g8Tf1pbnavQC&dq=George+Tyrrell&pg=PA434 Tyrrell, George. ''Life of George Tyrrell from 1884 to 1909'', Longmans, Green & Company, 1912, p. 118]{{PD-notice}}</ref> 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".<ref>[https://archive.org/details/baronfriedrichvo0000barm/page/254 <!-- quote=Friedrich von Hügel. --> Barmann, Lawrence F., ''Baron Friedrich Von Hügel and the Modernist Crisis in England'', CUP Archive, 1972, p. 144] {{ISBN|9780521081788}}</ref> 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 "[[Theological censure|offensive to pious ears]]". Tyrrell was assigned to a small mission in [[Richmond, North Yorkshire|Richmond]], where he deeply appreciated the peace and quiet. In January 1901, he declined a re-assignment back to St. Helen's. |
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Tyrrell was critical both of the Catholic neo-Scholasticism and of the [[Liberal Christianity|Liberal Protestant]] scholarship of the day. In an often quoted attack on [[Adolf von Harnack]]'s approach to [[Biblical criticism]], Tyrrell wrote that "the Christ that Harnack sees, looking back through nineteen centuries of 'Catholic darkness', is only the reflection of a Liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well."<ref>George Tyrrell, ''Christianity at the Crossroads'' (1913 ed.), pg. 44</ref> On the other hand, Tyrrell advocated "the right of each age to adjust the historico-philosophical expression of [[Christianity]] to contemporary certainties, and thus to put an end to this utterly needless conflict between [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] and [[science]] which is a mere theological bogey."{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} In Tyrrell's view, the pope should not act as an autocrat but a "spokesman for the mind of the [[Holy Spirit (Christianity)|Holy Spirit]] in the Church".<ref name="Saunders 2011 p. 47">{{cite book | last=Saunders | first=F.S. | title=The Woman Who Shot Mussolini: A Biography | publisher=Henry Holt and Company | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-4299-3508-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZwGwBXd86UC&pg=PA47 | access-date=16 April 2018 | page=47}}</ref> |
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⚫ | In 1899 Tyrrell published ''A Perverted Devotion''. The article concerned the concept of |
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Between 1891 and 1906, Tyrrell published more than twenty articles in Catholic periodicals, many of them in the United States.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154819?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Portier, William L. “George Tyrrell in America.” ''U.S. Catholic Historian'', vol. 20, no. 3, 2002, pp. 69–95. JSTOR]</ref> |
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Tyrrell argued that most [[biblical scholarship]] and devotional reflection, such as the quest for the [[Historicity of Jesus|historic Jesus]], involves elements of self-conscious self-reflection. In an often quoted criticism of [[Adolf von Harnack]]'s Liberal Protestant view of Scripture, Tyrrell wrote that "the Christ that Harnack sees, looking back through nineteen centuries of 'Catholic darkness', is only the reflection of a Liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well."<ref>George Tyrrell, ''Christianity at the Crossroads'' (1913 ed.), pg. 44</ref> |
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In Tyrrell's view, the pope should not act as an autocrat but a "spokesman for the mind of the [[Holy Spirit (Christianity)|Holy Spirit]] in the Church".<ref name="Saunders 2011 p. 47">{{cite book | last=Saunders | first=F.S. | title=The Woman Who Shot Mussolini: A Biography | publisher=Henry Holt and Company | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-4299-3508-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZwGwBXd86UC&pg=PA47 | access-date=16 April 2018 | page=47}}</ref> He was disciplined under [[Pope Pius X]] for advocating "the right of each age to adjust the historico-philosophical expression of [[Christianity]] to contemporary certainties, and thus to put an end to this utterly needless conflict between [[Faith in Christianity|faith]] and [[science]] which is a mere theological bogey."{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} |
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[[File:GeorgeTyrrell's gravestone.jpg|thumb|The stone erected at the grave of George Tyrrell]] |
[[File:GeorgeTyrrell's gravestone.jpg|thumb|The stone erected at the grave of George Tyrrell]] |
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Asked in 1906 to repudiate his theories, Tyrrell declined and was dismissed from the Jesuits by [[Superior General of the Society of Jesus|Father General]] [[Franz X. Wernz]]. He was the only Jesuit to be expelled from the society in the twentieth century until a subsequent Father General, [[Pedro Arrupe]], expelled the Dutch priest [[Huub Oosterhuis]] in 1969. Modernism played a major role in both cases. |
Asked in 1906 to repudiate his theories, Tyrrell declined and was dismissed from the Jesuits by [[Superior General of the Society of Jesus|Father General]] [[Franz X. Wernz]]. He was the only Jesuit to be expelled from the society in the twentieth century until a subsequent Father General, [[Pedro Arrupe]], expelled the Dutch priest [[Huub Oosterhuis]] in 1969. Modernism played a major role in both cases. |
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With the |
With the explicit condemnations of modernism by [[Pope Pius X]], first in the decree ''[[Lamentabili sane exitu]]'' of July 1907 and then in the encyclical ''[[Pascendi dominici gregis]]'' of September 1907, Tyrrell's fate was sealed. Tyrrell contributed two letters to ''[[The Times]]'' in which he strongly criticized that encyclical.<ref name=Hurley/> For his public rejection of ''Pascendi'', Tyrrell was also deprived of the sacraments, in what [[Peter Amigo]], the [[Archbishop of Southwark|Bishop of Southwark]], characterized as "a minor [[excommunication]]".<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28830686 "The Pope and Modernism"], Father Tyrrell's Articles, at ''The West Australian'' (Perth, WA), 2 November 1907, p. 2. Also available at [http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/easterndaily19071105-1.2.2.aspx Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, 5 November 1907, page 1].</ref> |
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In his rebuttal of Pius X's encyclical, Tyrrell alleged that the Church's thinking was based on a [[theory of science]] and on a [[psychology]] that seemed as strange as [[astrology]] to the modern mind. Tyrrell accused ''Pascendi'' of equating |
In his rebuttal of Pius X's encyclical, Tyrrell alleged that the Church's thinking was based on a [[theory of science]] and on a [[psychology]] that seemed as strange as [[astrology]] to the modern mind. Tyrrell accused ''Pascendi'' of equating Catholic doctrine with [[Scholastic theology]] and of having a completely naïve view of doctrinal development. He furthermore asserted that the encyclical tried to show the "modernist" that he was not a Catholic, but succeeded only in showing that he was not a Scholastic.<ref name=Rafferty/> |
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Unlike [[Alfred Loisy]], Tyrrell never saw his case come up before the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Congregation of Index]] or the [[Holy Office of the Inquisition|Holy Office]]. His case was wholly in the hands of the [[Cardinal Secretary of State]], [[Rafael Merry del Val]], who worked closely with Bishop Amigo.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-239-0/002 | doi=10.30687/978-88-6969-239-0/002 | chapter=Pius X, Merry del Val and the cases of Alfred Loisy and George Tyrrell | title=Le pontificat romain dans l'époque contemporaine | the Papacy in the Contemporary Age | series=Studi di storia | year=2018 | last1=Arnold | first1=Claus | volume=5 | isbn=978-88-6969-256-7 | s2cid=188218619 }}</ref> |
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==Death== |
==Death== |
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Tyrrell's last two years were spent mainly in [[Storrington]]. He suffered from chronic [[nephritis]] (known by physicians at the time as "[[Bright's disease]]") and became increasingly ill. He was given [[extreme unction]] on his deathbed in 1909, but as he refused to abjure his modernist views was denied burial in a Catholic cemetery.<ref>Fergus Kerr, ''Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians'' (Blackwell, 2007, p. 5)</ref> A priest, his friend [[Henri Brémond]], was present at the burial and made a [[sign of the cross]] over Tyrrell's grave, which resulted in Bishop Amigo temporarily suspending Fr. Bremond ''[[interdict|a divinis]]''.<ref>[http://www.sofn.org.uk/DOCTRINE/catholic_modernism.htm SOFN.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050429015315/http://www.sofn.org.uk/DOCTRINE/catholic_modernism.htm |date=29 April 2005 }}</ref> |
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⚫ | A near contemporary account places most of the blame for the disagreement between the modern Catholic philosophers and the [[Holy See|Vatican]] on |
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⚫ | A near contemporary account on ''[[The New York Times]]'' places most of the blame for the disagreement between the modern Catholic philosophers and the [[Holy See|Vatican]] on [[Rafael Merry del Val|Cardinal Merry del Val]]'s "irreconcilable and reactionary attitude".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Littlefield |first=Walter |last2= |first2= |date=1910-04-17 |title=Indiscretion of Cardinal Merry del Val; Acts of the Papal Secretary of State Which Have Laid Him Open to Criticism |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1910/04/17/archives/indiscretion-of-cardinal-merry-del-val-acts-of-the-papal-secretary.html |access-date= |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> |
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According to [[Michael Hurley (Jesuit)|Michael Hurley]] SJ, Tyrrell's views were in large part vindicated by the [[Second Vatican Council]].<ref name=Hurley/> |
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==Selected writings== |
==Selected writings== |
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* ''Lex Orandi: or, Prayer & Creed'', Longmans, Green & Co., 1903 |
* ''Lex Orandi: or, Prayer & Creed'', Longmans, Green & Co., 1903 |
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* ''Lex Credendi: A Sequel to Lex Orandi'', Longmans, Green & Co., 1906 |
* ''Lex Credendi: A Sequel to Lex Orandi'', Longmans, Green & Co., 1906 |
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* [https://archive.org/details/throughscyllacha00tyrriala ''Through Scylla and Charybdis: or, The Old Theology and the New''], Longmans, Green & Co., 1907 |
* [https://archive.org/details/throughscyllacha00tyrriala ''Through Scylla and Charybdis: or, The Old Theology and the New''], Longmans, Green & Co., 1907<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Athenaeum|date=5 October 1907|issue=4171|title=Review of ''Through Scylla and Charybdis: or, the Old Theology and the New'' by George Tyrrell|pages=395–396|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA395}}</ref> |
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* [https://archive.org/details/muchabusedletter00tyrr ''A Much-Abused Letter''], Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907 |
* [https://archive.org/details/muchabusedletter00tyrr ''A Much-Abused Letter''], Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907 |
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* ''Medievalism: A Reply to Cardinal Mercier'', Longmans, Green, and Co. 1908 |
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=yKwzAQAAIAAJ ''Medievalism: A Reply to Cardinal Mercier''], Longmans, Green, and Co. 1908 |
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* ''The Church and the Future'', The Priory Press, 1910 |
* ''The Church and the Future'', The Priory Press, 1910 |
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* ''Christianity at the Cross-Roads'', Longmans, Green and Co., 1910 |
* ''Christianity at the Cross-Roads'', Longmans, Green and Co., 1910 |
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* [https://books.google.com/books?id=mJSTWxigFEIC ''Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell''], Edward Arnold, 1912<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell''|journal=The Athenaeum |issue=4436|date=2 November 1912|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=px9Y0BOY-QMC&pg=PA509|pages=509–510}}</ref> |
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* ''Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell'', Edward Arnold, 1912 |
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* ''Essays on Faith and Immortality'', Edward Arnold, 1914 |
* ''Essays on Faith and Immortality'', Edward Arnold, 1914 |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |
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* 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. |
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*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tyrrell, George|volume=27}} |
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Tyrrell, George|volume=27|pages=550–551}} |
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* 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. |
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* [[Ellen Leonard|Leonard, Ellen]] (1982) ''George Tyrrell and the Catholic Tradition'' New York: Paulist Press. {{ISBN|0809124246}} |
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* Maher, Anthony M. (2018). 'The Forgotten Jesuit of Catholic Modernism: George Tyrrell's Prophetic Theology.' Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press. |
* Maher, Anthony M. (2018). 'The Forgotten Jesuit of Catholic Modernism: George Tyrrell's Prophetic Theology.' Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press. |
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* May, J. Lewis (1932). ''Father Tyrrell and the Modernist Movement''. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. |
* May, J. Lewis (1932). ''Father Tyrrell and the Modernist Movement''. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. |
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* Moore, J.F. (1920). [https://archive.org/stream/n1universitymag19mcgiuoft#page/172/mode/2up "The Meaning of Modernism,"] ''The University Magazine,'' Vol. XIX, No. 2, pp. 172–178. |
* Moore, J.F. (1920). [https://archive.org/stream/n1universitymag19mcgiuoft#page/172/mode/2up "The Meaning of Modernism,"] ''The University Magazine,'' Vol. XIX, No. 2, pp. 172–178. |
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* [[Maude Petre|Petre, Maude]] (1912). ''Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell''. London: E. Arnold. |
* [[Maude Petre|Petre, Maude]] (1912). ''Autobiography and Life of George Tyrrell''. London: E. Arnold. |
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* Rafferty, Oliver P. (ed.) (2010). ''George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism''. Dublin: Four |
* Rafferty, Oliver P. (ed.) (2010). ''George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism''. Dublin: Four Courts Press, {{ISBN|978-1-846-82236-0}}. |
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* Ratté, John (1967). ''Three Modernists: Alfred Loisy, George Tyrrell, William L. Sullivan''. New York: Sheed & Ward. |
* Ratté, John (1967). ''Three Modernists: Alfred Loisy, George Tyrrell, William L. Sullivan''. New York: Sheed & Ward. |
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*{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Tyrrell, George|first=James McMullen |last=Rigg}} |
*{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Tyrrell, George|first=James McMullen |last=Rigg}} |
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* Sagovsky, Nicholas (1990). ''On God's Side: A Life of George Tyrrell''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. |
* Sagovsky, Nicholas (1990). ''On God's Side: A Life of George Tyrrell''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. |
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*{{cite ODNB|first=Nicholas|last=Sagovsky|title=Tyrrell, George (1861–1909)|id=36606}} |
*{{cite ODNB|first=Nicholas|last=Sagovsky|title=Tyrrell, George (1861–1909)|id=36606}} |
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* Savage, Allan (2012). ''The "Avant-Garde" Theology of George Tyrrell: Its Philosophical Roots Changed My Theological Thinking''. (CreateSpace.com) |
* Savage, Allan (2012). ''The "Avant-Garde" Theology of George Tyrrell: Its Philosophical Roots Changed My Theological Thinking''. (CreateSpace.com) |
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* Schultenover, David G. (1981). ''George Tyrrell: In Search of Catholicism''. Shepherdstown, West Virginia: Patmos Press. |
* Schultenover, David G. (1981). ''George Tyrrell: In Search of Catholicism''. Shepherdstown, West Virginia: Patmos Press. |
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* [[David F. Wells|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. |
* [[David F. Wells|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. |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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{{commons category|George Tyrrell}} |
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* {{Gutenberg author |id=3326| name=George Tyrrell}} |
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* {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Tyrrell}} |
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Tyrrell}} |
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{{Modernism in the Catholic Church}} |
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{{History of Catholic theology}} |
{{History of Catholic theology}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
Latest revision as of 22:46, 13 December 2024
George Tyrrell | |
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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 |
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George Tyrrell SJ (6 February 1861 – 15 July 1909) was an Anglo-Irish Catholic priest and a highly controversial theologian and scholar. A convert from Anglicanism, Tyrrell joined the Jesuit order in 1880. His attempts to adapt Catholic theology to modern culture and science made him a key figure in the controversy over modernism in the Catholic Church that flared up in the late 19th-century. During the anti-modernist crusade led by Pope Pius X, Tyrrell was expelled from the Jesuit Order in 1906 and excommunicated in 1908.
Early life
[edit]George Tyrrell was born on 6 February 1861 in the city of Dublin. His father William Tyrrell, a journalist and sub-editor of the Dublin Evening Mail, died shortly before George's birth. The Tyrrells belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and were intellectually distinguished. George was a first cousin of the classicist Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, who became Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin. A childhood accident resulted in George eventually becoming deaf in the right ear.[1] The family had to move repeatedly due to the financial straits in which it fell after the death of George's father.
George was brought up as an Anglican and around 1869 he attended Rathmines School, near Dublin. He was educated from 1873 at Midleton College, an institution affiliated with the Church of Ireland, but his mother had difficulty affording the fees and he left early. In 1876–77, he studied privately in the hopes of earning a scholarship to study Hebrew at Trinity College, but he failed the required examination twice, much to the distress of his mother. Around 1877 he met Robert Dolling, an Anglo-Catholic priest who had a strong influence on him. In August 1878, Tyrrell took a teaching post at Wexford High School, but in October he matriculated at Trinity College, on the advice of Dolling, hoping to train for the Anglican ministry.[1]
Jesuit
[edit]In the spring of 1879, at Dolling's invitation, Tyrrell went to London to work for the Saint Martin's League, a sort of mission that Dolling was organizing. On Palm Sunday, Tyrrell wandered into St Etheldreda's, a Catholic church on Ely Place. He was powerfully struck by the Catholic Mass, about which he would say in his autobiography: "Here was the old business, being carried on by the old firm, in the old ways; here was continuity, that took one back to the catacombs."[1] He converted and was received into the Catholic Church in 1879. He immediately applied to join the Society of Jesus, but the provincial superior advised him to wait a year. He spent the interim teaching at Jesuit schools in Cyprus and Malta.[2] He joined the Jesuits in 1880 and was sent to the novitiate at Manresa House.
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 Benedictine spirituality.
After taking his first vows, Tyrrell was sent to Stonyhurst College to study philosophy as the first stage in his Jesuit formation. Having completed his studies at Stonyhurst, he next returned to the Jesuit school in Malta, where he spent three years teaching. He then went to St Beuno's College, in Wales, to take up his theological studies. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1891.
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
[edit]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 Liberal Protestant scholarship of the day. In an often quoted attack on Adolf von Harnack's approach to Biblical criticism, Tyrrell wrote that "the Christ that Harnack sees, looking back through nineteen centuries of 'Catholic darkness', is only the reflection of a Liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well."[7] On the other hand, Tyrrell advocated "the right of each age to adjust the historico-philosophical expression of Christianity to contemporary certainties, and thus to put an end to this utterly needless conflict between faith and science which is a mere theological bogey."[citation needed] In Tyrrell's view, the pope should not act as an autocrat but a "spokesman for the mind of the Holy Spirit in the Church".[8]
Expulsion and excommunication
[edit]Asked in 1906 to repudiate his theories, Tyrrell declined and was dismissed from the Jesuits by Father General Franz X. Wernz. He was the only Jesuit to be expelled from the society in the twentieth century until a subsequent Father General, Pedro Arrupe, expelled the Dutch priest Huub Oosterhuis in 1969. Modernism played a major role in both cases.
With the explicit condemnations of modernism by Pope Pius X, first in the decree Lamentabili sane exitu of July 1907 and then in the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis of September 1907, Tyrrell's fate was sealed. Tyrrell contributed two letters to The Times in which he strongly criticized that encyclical.[3] For his public rejection of Pascendi, Tyrrell was also deprived of the sacraments, in what Peter Amigo, the Bishop of Southwark, characterized as "a minor excommunication".[9]
In his rebuttal of Pius X's encyclical, Tyrrell alleged that the Church's thinking was based on a theory of science and on a psychology that seemed as strange as astrology to the modern mind. Tyrrell accused Pascendi of equating Catholic doctrine with Scholastic theology and of having a completely naïve view of doctrinal development. He furthermore asserted that the encyclical tried to show the "modernist" that he was not a Catholic, but succeeded only in showing that he was not a Scholastic.[2]
Unlike Alfred Loisy, Tyrrell never saw his case come up before the Congregation of Index or the Holy Office. His case was wholly in the hands of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Rafael Merry del Val, who worked closely with Bishop Amigo.[10]
Death
[edit]Tyrrell's last two years were spent mainly in Storrington. He suffered from chronic nephritis (known by physicians at the time as "Bright's disease") and became increasingly ill. He was given extreme unction on his deathbed in 1909, but as he refused to abjure his modernist views was denied burial in a Catholic cemetery.[11] A priest, his friend Henri Brémond, was present at the burial and made a sign of the cross over Tyrrell's grave, which resulted in Bishop Amigo temporarily suspending Fr. Bremond a divinis.[12]
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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- ^ 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.
- ^ Barmann, Lawrence F., Baron Friedrich Von Hügel and the Modernist Crisis in England, CUP Archive, 1972, p. 144 ISBN 9780521081788
- ^ George Tyrrell, Christianity at the Crossroads (1913 ed.), pg. 44
- ^ Saunders, F.S. (2011). The Woman Who Shot Mussolini: A Biography. Henry Holt and Company. p. 47. 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.
- ^ Arnold, Claus (2018). "Pius X, Merry del Val and the cases of Alfred Loisy and George Tyrrell". Le pontificat romain dans l'époque contemporaine | the Papacy in the Contemporary Age. Studi di storia. Vol. 5. doi:10.30687/978-88-6969-239-0/002. ISBN 978-88-6969-256-7. S2CID 188218619.
- ^ Fergus Kerr, Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians (Blackwell, 2007, p. 5)
- ^ SOFN.org Archived 29 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Littlefield, Walter (17 April 1910). "Indiscretion of Cardinal Merry del Val; Acts of the Papal Secretary of State Which Have Laid Him Open to Criticism". The New York Times. 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
[edit]- 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.
- Leonard, Ellen (1982) George Tyrrell and the Catholic Tradition New York: Paulist Press. 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)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36606. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- 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.
External links
[edit]- 1861 births
- 1909 deaths
- Catholicism-related controversies
- Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
- Former Jesuits
- Irish Anglicans
- 19th-century Irish Roman Catholic theologians
- Christian clergy from Dublin (city)
- 19th-century Irish Jesuits
- People educated at Midleton College
- People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
- Modernism in the Catholic Church
- People from Storrington
- 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic theologians