Coleridge and Liberal Religious Thought: Romanticism, Science and Theological Tradition

(Hardback)

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Few figures who were active in the English Romantic Movement are as fascinating as Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). Aside from his own visionary verse, Coleridge is famous for his colourful friendships with fellow-poets Wordsworth and Southey, and above all for his well documented drug-taking and creative use of opium. But it is less widely appreciated that he was also a key figure in Anglican thought, whose writings are continually referred to by modern Anglican theologians. Coleridge's journey from the Unitarianism of his father towards a later commitment to Anglican Trinitarianism of a type he had rejected in his youth involved a rigorous philosophical process of imaginative liberal thinking. Over the last 200 years, that thinking has provided Anglicanism with many valedictory tools as well as a measure of robust self-belief. Offering a major contribution both to religious history and the history of ideas, Graham Neville here charts the particular liberal tradition in British religious thought which stems directly from Coleridge. He shows why Coleridge's thought remains so significant, and traces the ways in which his subject's theological ideas profoundly influenced later British writers and scholars like F.D. Maurice, F.J.A. Hort, F.W. Robertson, B.F. Westcott, John Oman and Thomas Erskine (once called the 'Scottish Coleridge'). Dr Neville further relates the pioneering ideas of Coleridge to current developments in theology and scientific method.

Reviews

'Coleridge and the Liberal Religious Tradition forms the latest part of a distinguished tradition of scholarship which recognizes Coleridge's mind as essentially Anglican and at the same time universal. In this book we see how his thinking was deeply intellectual and profoundly imaginative, rooted in the thought, poetry and spirituality of the Western tradition. Nothing in Coleridge is ever simple, least of all his journey from Unitarian to Trinitarian thought, and in Graham Neville's fine work we realize afresh his complex continuity with the past and his influence upon the future in such capacious spirits as the theologian F D Maurice and the biblical scholar FJ A Hort, and after them Charles Gore and Charles Raven. This is an important contribution to the library of Coleridge studies, and a reminder that Coleridge was more than a poet and philosopher, but a religious thinker whose influence upon a Broad Church in England and far beyond remains deeply illuminating and vibrant.' - David Jasper, Professor in Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow; 'Many literary and philosophical campaigns have claimed Coleridge as a comrade-in-arms. But this exceptionally clear and confident account of Coleridge's theological discourse shows how pivotal he was to the development of liberal religious thought and practice in the 19th and 20th centuries, on both sides of the Atlantic. Coleridge the theologian has in fact been neglected at the expense of Coleridge the philosopher and poet. Graham Neville here firmly establishes his subject as as a major influence on such important 19th century religious thinkers as FD Maurice, FJA Hort, FW Robertson and Thomas Erskine. Furthermore, the enduring influence of Coleridge's brand of theological liberalism well into the 20th century is argued with judicious care and conviction. The author not only throws new light on Coleridge. He also illuminates the whole progressive intellectual and theological culture to which he himself contributed so much of lasting value.' - John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln

Author Bio

Graham Neville was Canon and Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral from 1982-1987. He is the author of several books which include 'Radical Churchman: Edward Lee Hicks and the New Liberalism' (1998) and 'Free Time: Towards a Theology of Leisure' (2004).