Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872)

It has been said concerning the Theological Essays that: "Maurice has a sneaky approach. He begins an Essay by considering an objection to traditional Christian theology: for example, the objection that the instructions supposedly given by God to the Israelites to massacre the inhabitants of Canaan are morally indefensible. He begins by conceding his opponent's assertion, by granting that indeed it is preposterous to suppose that God would ever do anything of the kind. He then invites his opponent to consider how it is that we come to believe that the wholesale slaughter of defeated opponents in war is wrong. (A glance at any history of the Pelopennesian War, by Thyucidides or another, will make it clear that the Ancient Greeks did not share this view.) He explores with his opponent the question of the role of Israel in the moral and spiritual development of mankind -- the implications of the fact that the overwhelming majority of those who believe that it is wrong to slaughter a defeated people originally got that idea from sources traceable back to the religious ideas of the ancient Israelites. He points out that, if there is a God and He has revealed Himself, there is reason to suppose that the history of Israel is a part of that revelation. And by the time he is done, he has won more territory than he appeared at first to be losing."

John Frederick Denison Maurice (August 29, 1805 - April 1, 1872) was an English theologian and socialist recognized as one of the most important thinkers in the Anglican tradition.

This is the opening sentence of John Orens' essay "Maurice on Prayer"

There is no Anglican theologian of the nineteenth century more universally revered than Frederick Denison Maurice. Christian Socialist, educator, ecumenist, novelist and priest, Maurice looms above most of his contemporaries in the breadth of his interests and the prophetic spirit which inspired them. Identified with no church party, yet claimed by all, Maurice seems the quintessential Anglican: learned, tolerant and pious.… (more)