Episode 17. The William Temple Tradition in Anglican Social Theology

SYNOPSIS

William Temple’s sudden death only two years into his term as Archbishop of Canterbury belied the great respect with which he was already regarded as international Church statesman, as a Christian teacher and in the field of social justice.  His lifelong friendship with R. H. Tawney began at Rugby School, and like Tawney, Temple continued to Balliol College, Oxford where he also came under the influence of the neo-Hegelian idealism instituted by T H Green. Like Tawney, Temple was profoundly affected by the poverty he witnessed during East End settlement work. In 1908 he became the first president of the Workers Educational Association, for which Tawney worked.  The interview places William Temple in the long tradition of Christian Socialism, stretching back to F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes and the 1848 Chartist rebellion, and continuing by Stewart Headlam’s Guild of St Matthew and Henry Scott Holland’s Christian Social Union.      

GUEST

The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer leads the theological education initiative for the Anglican Communion. He took up the role in February 2018. He was previously vice principal at St Hild College in Yorkshire. Stephen’s interest in William Temple commenced while he was an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, leading to postgraduate study of Temple’s philosophical beliefs and culminating in 2022 in the publication of Archbishop William Temple: A Study in Servant Leadership. Prior to this Stephen published an edited collection of extracts from Temple’s writings - Christ in all Things: William Temple and his writings, SCM Press 2015.

Stephen’s interview with Simon Machin was conducted online on 7 April 2021.