Edward Ingram Watkin (27 September 1888 - 1981) was an English Catholic philosopher, pacifist and writer.

Life

He studied at

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , h ...

and New College, Oxford.

Joseph Pearce Joseph Pearce (born February 12, 1961), is an English-born American writer, and Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee, before which he held positions at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in ...

, ''Literary Converts'' (1999), p. 39. In 1908, Watkin became a convert to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He publicly opposed conscription in 1916, a position he upheld in his 1939 pamphlet ''The Crime of Conscription''. In 1927, Watkin befriended the exiled Italian priest Don

Luigi Sturzo Luigi Sturzo (; 26 November 1871 – 8 August 1959) was an Italian Catholic priest and prominent politician. He was known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist" and is considered one of the fathers of the Christian democratic platform. He w ...

, whose work Watkin would later publish in the '' Dublin Review''. Watkin's best known works were ''Philosophy of Mysticism'' (1920) and ''A Philosophy of Form'' (1938). He has been described as "one of the few non-Thomist Catholic philosophers of the early twentieth century."

Pacifism

Watkin was a pacifist and joined the pacifist organization The Guild of Pope's Peace in 1916 which promoted peaceful solutions to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Brown, Stuart. (2005). ''The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers, Volume 2''. Thoemmes Continuum. pp. 1094-1095. He founded in 1936 with

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

and

Donald Attwater Donald Attwater by Eric Gill, 1929, private collection. Donald Attwater (24 December 1892 – 30 January 1977) was a British Catholic author, editor and translator, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Notre Dame. Life Attwater was born ...

the inter-war Catholic pacifist movement Pax. This movement was prominently supported by

Dorothy Day Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known ...

. Watkin was opposed to

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

, and his book ''The Catholic Centre'' includes a critique of Fascist Italy and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

as being part of "a social revolt against reason".

Family

His maternal grandfather was

Herbert Ingram Herbert Ingram (27 May 1811 – 8 September 1860) was a British journalist and politician. He is considered the father of pictorial journalism through his founding of ''The Illustrated London News'', the first illustrated magazine. He was a ...

;

Edward Watkin Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (26 September 1819 – 13 April 1901) was a British Member of Parliament and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, and presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his b ...

was a great-uncle on his father's side.The Early History of the Illustrated London News
/ref> His daughter was Magdalen Goffin.

Works

*''Some Thoughts on Catholic Apologetics: A Plea for Interpretation'' (1915) *''A Little Book of Prayers for Peace'' (1916)
''The Philosophy of Mysticism''
(1920) *''The Bow in the Clouds: An Essay Towards the Integration of Experience'' (1931) *''Theism, Agnosticism And Atheism'' (1936) *''Men and Tendencies'' (London: Sheed & Ward, 1937) *''A Philosophy of Form'' (1938) *''The Crime of Conscription'' (1939) *''The Catholic Center'' (1939) *''Praise of Glory'' (1943) *''The Balance of Truth'' (1943) * *''Poets and Mystics'' (1953) *''Neglected Saints'' (1955) *''Roman Catholicism in England from the Reformation to 1950'' (1957) *''The Church in Council'' (1960)

Life

Pacifism

Family

Works

References

Further reading