Temple’s admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian,
social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical
movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican
churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned
Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation,"
"Anglican’s most creative and comprehensive contribution to the
theological enterprise of the West." One of his biographers lists
him (along with Richard Hooker, Joseph Butler, and Frederick Denison
Maurice) as one of the Four Great Doctors of the Anglican Communion.

Ronald Knox described him thus:

A man so broad, to some he seem’d to be
Not one, but all Mankind
in Effigy.
Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,
Did
everything by turns, and nothing wrong.
Bill’d at each Lecture-Hall
from Thames to Tyne,
As Thinker, Usher, Statesman, or Divine.

George Bernard Shaw called him, "a realized
impossibility."

Who was this remarkable person?

William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 1881, the
second son of Frederick Temple (born 1821, priest 1847, headmaster of
Rugby 1857, Bishop of Exeter 1869, Bishop of London 1884, Archbishop of
Canterbury 1897, died 1902). At the age of two, he had the first attack
of the gout that would be with him throughout life and eventually kill
him. His eyesight was bad, and a cataract, present from infancy, left
him completely blind in the right eye when he was 40. However, he was an
avid reader, with a near-photographic memory, and once he had read a
book, it was his. He was a passionate lover of the music of Bach. In
literature, his special enthusiasms were poetry (Browning and Shelley),
drama (the Greeks and Shakespeare), and a few novels, especially THE
BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. He believed that theological ideas were often
explored most effectively by writers who were not explicitly writing
theology.

He was at Oxford (Balliol) from 1900 to 1904, and was president of
the Oxford Union (the debating society of the University). Here he
developed a remarkable ability to sum up an issue, expressing the pros
and cons so clearly and fairly that the original opponents often ended
up agreeing with each other. This ability served him in good stead later
when he moderated conferences on theological and social issues. However,
it was not just a useful talent for settling disputes. It was, or
developed into, an important part of his philosophy, a belief in
Dialectic, derived from Hegel and from Plato. He thought that beliefs
and ideas reach their full maturity through their response to opposing
ideas.

In 1906, he applied for ordination, but the Bishop of Oxford would
not ordain him because he admitted that his belief in the Virgin Birth
and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus was shaky. However, Davidson, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, after a careful examination, decided that
Temple’s thought was developing in a direction that would inevitably
bring him into an orthodox position, and decided to take a chance on
ordaining him (deacon 1909, priest 1910). He may be said to have won his
bet, in that by 1913 Temple had indeed committed himself fully to the
orthodox position, and could write: "I believe in the Virgin
Birth…it wonderfully holds before the imagination the truth of Our
Lord’s Deity and so I am glad that it is in the Creed. Similarly I
believe in our Lord’s Bodily Resurrection."

In 1908 he became president of the Workers’ Educational Association
(founded by Frederick Denison Maurice), and in 1918 joined the British
Labour Party, and worked actively for the implementing of its platform.
He also became vigorously involved in movements for Christian
co-operation and unity, in missions, in the British Council of Churches,
in the World Council of Churches, in the Church of South India (a merger
of Anglican, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches
into a single church, with provisions for safeguarding what each group
thought essential).

In 1916 he married Frances Anson, and the night before the wedding
he stayed up late to finish writing his first major theological
treatise, Mens Creatrix (the Creative Mind). Eight years later he
published a companion volume, expanding and clarifying the ideas of the
first, called Christus Veritas (Christ the Truth). In 1921 he was made
Bishop of Manchester, a heavily industrial city. In 1926 Britain
experienced what was known as the General Strike, in which most workmen
in all trades and industries went on strike, not against their
particular employers, but against the social and economic policies of
the country as a whole. In Manchester this meant primarily a coal
stoppage. Temple worked extensively to mediate between the parties, and
helped to bring about a settlement that both sides regarded as basically
fair.

He excelled, it would seem, not as a scholar, but as a moderator,
and above all as a teacher and preacher. In 1931, at the end of the
Oxford Mission (what is known in many Protestant circles as a Revival
Meeting), he led a congregation in the University Church, St Mary the
Virgin, in the singing of the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous
Cross." Just before the last stanza, he stopped them and asked them
to read the words to themselves. "Now," he said, if you mean
them with all your heart, sing them as loud as you can. If you don’t
mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little and want
to mean them more, sing them very softly." The organ played, and
two thousand voices whispered:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far
too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life,
my all.

For many who participated, it was a never-forgotten experience.

Temple became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942, when a German
invasion seemed likely. He worked for the relief of Jewish refugees from
Naziism, and publicly supported a negotiated peace, as opposed to the
unconditional surrender that the Allied leaders were demanding.

His gout worsened. His last public appearance was at a clergy
retreat (a time spent in a secluded place, with silence, prayer,
meditation, reading, and listening to sermons), where he was taken by
ambulance and spoke standing on his one good foot. He died on 26 October
1944.

The current issue of Books in Print (American) shows the following
works available by him. (Stars mark what one biographer calls his three
most important books.)

*Readings in St. John’s Gospel, 1985, Morehouse Pub, 391 pp, paper
$9, LC 84-62374, ISBN 0-8192-1360-8 (a bargain! Highly recommended)

Hope of a New World, $17, ISBN 0-8369-1778-2 Ayer

Essay on the Origin and Nature of Government, $14.50 AMS Press ISBN
0-404-70109-4

Christian Faith and Life, Morehouse, 150pp, pap $10, ISBN
0-8192-1631-3 (originally delivered as the Oxford Mission addresses,
first published in 1931 from shorthand notes of the addresses)

*Nature, Man, and God (the Gifford Lectures 1932-33). $67.50 AMS
Press. (The Gifford Lectures are an endowed annual series of lectures on
Natural Theology–that is, the lecturer is to take his evidence from the
observed facts of nature and not ask his listeners to accept the
genuineness of any particular revelation to Moses or David or Mohammed
or…. The series is prestigious. William James’s THE VARIETIES OF
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE and Edwyn Bevan’s SYMBOLISM AND BELIEF were both
originally Gifford Lectures.)

Works in 4 Volumes, $24.50 per volume, Greenwood Press. ISBN
0-8371-1775-5, 0-8371-0851-9, 0-8371-0852-7, 0-8371-0853-5.

Other works of his, not listed as being in print, but presumably
included in the WORKS mentioned above (although the title does not
explicitly say COMPLETE WORKS), include the following:

Christus Veritas: An Essay, London, Macmillan, 1934.

Mens Creatrix: An Essay, London, Macmillan, 1935.

*Christianity and the Social Order, New York, Penguin Books, 1942.

PRAYERS (traditional language):

O God, our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful
servant William Temple to be a bishop and pastor in thy Church
and to feed thy flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts
of thy Holy Spirit, that they may minister in thy household as
true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth
with thee and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God, who by thy Holy Spirit dost give to some the word of
wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word
of faith: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested
in thy servant William Temple, and we pray that thy Church may
never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth,
one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYERS (contemporary language):

O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant
William Temple to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and to
feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of
your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as
true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O God, who by your Holy Spirit give to some the word of wisdom,
to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of
faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in
your servant William Temple, and we pray that your Church may
never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one
God, for ever and ever.