Two apologists for Catholic Christology : Henry Parry Liddon and Charles Gore

On going up to Oxford in 1846, Liddon came under the influence of Pusey and formed a lifelong devotion to him. Liddon gained an early reputation as a preacher and an analysis of his sermons suggests the particularly determined character of his apology for Catholic Cbristo10gy. Alarmed by current theological developments, he used his Bampton Lectures to refute the new Socinianism, and hi~ appointment as Canon of St. Paul's in 1870 provided occasions for a more popular influence. His work constitutes, therefore, the exemplar of later Tractarian orthodoxy and of what was thought useful to reassure believers amidst growing scepticism. That the theologian whom Liddon had proposed to continue his work of opposing 'rationalism' ~hou1d have seemed to Liddon to have so signally departed from that orthodoxy is thus a matter of some interest. Gore certainly seemed to Liddon and others to belong within the same High Church tradition. Liddon secured his appointment as first Principal Librarian of Pusey House. Only by a careful reading of Gore's larger theological work can we come to assess how far Liddon was justified in seeing a betrayal of Puseyism in Gore's contribution to Lux Mundi. Gore used the Bampton Lectureship to clarify his position and to develop an imaginative restatement of it and any subsequent assessment of his concept of orthodoxy must take these and later writings" into account. Prom the examination of the Christo1ogica1 apologetics of Liddon and Gore, it is possible to open upon the large questions of the relation of scientific, historicist culture to the doctrinal structures of Catho1io Christianity. The elucidation of the differences between Liddon and Gore, which have been both exaggerated and underestimated, m~, therefore, be expected to exhibit not on~ the peculiarities of their theologies, but also the difficulties inherent in ~ attempt at Catho1io apologetics.