It was a blessing for me to encounter the theologian Austin Farrer a year before his sudden death. With him, I was one handshake away from his friends Tolkien, Lewis, and Sayers. In reflecting on natural disasters and God’s action in the world, he said with stark realism that in an earthquake, God’s will is that the elements of the Earth’s crust should behave in accordance with their nature. He was speaking of the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, which killed about the same number of people counted so far in devastated Haiti. Most were killed in churches on All Saints Day, which gave license to rationalists of the “Enlightenment” to mock the doctrine of a good God. Atheists can suddenly pretend to be theologians puzzled by the contradictory behavior of a benevolent God. On the other extreme, doltish TV evangelists summon a half-baked Calvinism to say that people who get hit hard deserve it.
Headline should be Austin FArrEr.
We have a good chapter by Julian Hartt and Bill Wilson on Farrer’s Theodicy in Captured by the Crucified: The Practical Theology of Austin Farrer.
http://www.continuumbooks.com/Books/detail.aspx?ReturnURL=/Subjects/default.aspx&ImprintID=5&BookID=113799
There’s been a revival of interest in Farrer, starting with his 100th birthday in 2004. Rob MacSwain and Ann Loades have a very helpful new collection of his writings out–pub’d by Canterbury in Norwich. And Rob has just completed his thesis on Farrer (at St Andrews). Rob Slocum also has a good new book out on Farrer. And the work continues. There’s a tremendous amount of real value to deal with–phil’l theology, biblical studies, sermons, etc.
I remember getting into a tussle with Matt Kennedy on this side some time ago on Farrer’s rejection of the literal existence of the devil. Farrer and Lewis were close, but Farrer was the more sophisticated, professional theologian.