Herbert John Ignatius McCabe (2 August 192628 June 2001)
was a
Dominican priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
,
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
.
Life
Herbert McCabe was born in
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
in the
North Riding of Yorkshire
The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres).
From the Restoration it was used as ...
.
[ He studied ]chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
at Manchester University, but influenced by Dorothy Emmet switched to philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
. He contributed a number of pieces to ''Humanitas
''Humanitas'' is a Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization, and kindness. It has uses in the Enlightenment, which are discussed below.
Classical origins of term
The Latin word ''humanitas'' corresponded to the Greek concepts of '' philanthr ...
'', and became friends with Eric John
Eric John (1922–2000) was a reader in history at the University of Manchester and a specialist in Anglo-Saxon history. He was described by James Campbell as "one of the most distinguished and provocative of Anglo-Saxonists". D. H. Farmer describ ...
among others.
McCabe joined the Dominicans in 1949, where under Victor White he began his lifelong study of the works of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
. Born John Ignatius McCabe, his novice master, Columba Ryan
Columba Ryan (born Patrick Ryan, 13 January 1916 in Hampstead – 4 August 2009) was a British priest of the Dominican Order and a philosophy teacher, university chaplain, and pastor. He was the brother of John Ryan, the British animator and ca ...
, gave McCabe the religious name ''Herbert'', in honour of Saint Herbert of Derwentwater
Saint Herbert of Derwentwater (died 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon priest and hermit who lived on the small St Herbert's Island in Derwentwater, Cumbria, England. His friendship with St Cuthbert is explored in a poem by William Wordsworth.
Bi ...
, a seventh-century Lakeland hermit. Ordained in 1955, he was a pastor in Newcastle for three years before being assigned as chaplain to De La Salle College, where one of his pupils was Terry Eagleton.
In 1965, he was sent to Cambridge as editor of the journal ''New Blackfriars'' but was removed in 1967 following a now-famous editorial in that journal in which he criticised the theologian Charles Davis for having left the Catholic Church. Davis left publicly, denouncing the church as corrupt. McCabe countered that of course the Church was corrupt but that this was no reason to leave it. Fr McCabe moved to Dublin, Ireland during the controversy. He was reinstated three years later, and began his editorial that month in characteristically combative style: "As I was saying, before I was so oddly interrupted...." He spent many years teaching at Blackfriars, Oxford University, writing four books, ''The New Creation'', a study of the Sacraments, in 1964; ''Law, Love and Language'', on the centrality of language in ethics, in 1968; ''The Teaching of the Catholic Church'', a short catechism, in 1986; ''God Matters'' in 1987; and ''God Still Matters'', a collection of his articles, in 2002. He was a member of the '' Slant'' group, and combined a commitment to the thought of Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...
and Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...
with a socialist political stance.
In 1989 he was awarded the STM degree, the highest Dominican academic degree.
McCabe's sermons were carefully prepared and delivered with great intelligence and wit
Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack.
Form ...
. A major theme was a caution against making God a god, of reducing the Creator to an object within this world, and thus committing idolatry
Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...
. In 1974 McCabe became an Irish citizen.
Terry Eagleton attributed to his friend McCabe the view that 'If you don't love, you're dead, and if you do, they'll kill you.'
McCabe died at Oxford on 28 June 2001, and was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery on 5 July.
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Bibliography
* McCabe, Herbert, ''Law, Love and language'' (1968), London: Continuum, 2004.
* McCabe, Herbert, ''God Matters'', (1987), London: Continuum, 2005.
* McCabe, Herbert, ''God Still Matters'', London, New York: Continuum Books, 2002. .
* McCabe, Herbert, ''Faith Within Reason'', London, New York: Continuum Books, 2007. .
* Manni, Franco, ''Herbert McCabe. Recollecting a Fragmented Legacy'', Eugene (Oregon): Wipf & Stock, 2020. .
See also
* Father Brian Davies, OP, his literary executor
References
External links
Obituary in the IndependentHigher-resolution photographGet to Know Herbert McCabe
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCabe, Herbert OP
1926 births
2001 deaths
20th-century British non-fiction writers
20th-century British philosophers
20th-century English Roman Catholic priests
Alumni of the University of Manchester
Analytic philosophers
Catholic philosophers
Catholicism and far-left politics
English Dominicans
English male non-fiction writers
English people of Irish descent
English philosophers
English sermon writers
Fellows of Blackfriars, Oxford
Irish Dominicans
Irish ethicists
Moral philosophers
People from Middlesbrough
Philosophers of ethics and morality
Philosophers of language
Philosophers of religion
20th-century British Roman Catholic theologians
Systematic theologians
Thomists
Wittgensteinian philosophers