Lawrence Pearsall Jacks (9 October 1860 – 17 February 1955), abbreviated L. P. Jacks, was an English educator, philosopher, and
Unitarian minister who rose to prominence in the period from
World War I to
World War II.
Early life
Jacks was born on 9 October 1860 in
Nottingham. In 1882, he enrolled in
Manchester New College
Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in Warrington in 1757 as a college for Unitarian students and moved to Oxford in 1893. It became a full college of th ...
(which then was in London). After graduating with a M.A. in 1886, he spent a year at
Harvard University, where he studied with the philosopher
Josiah Royce.
In 1887, he became assistant minister to
Stopford Brooke Stopford Brooke may refer to;
* Stopford Brooke (chaplain) (1832–1916), Irish writer, critic, clergyman, and royal chaplain
* Stopford Brooke (politician) (1859–1938), British Member of Parliament, 1906–1910
{{hndis, Brooke, Stopford ...
in his chapel in
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
, London. He served as assistant minister for a year, and then accepted a position as Unitarian minister for
Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel
Renshaw Street Unitarian Chapel was a Unitarian place of worship in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, England. It operated from 1811 until the 1890s and was particularly well frequented by ship-owning and mercantile families, who formed a close networ ...
in Liverpool.
In 1889 Jacks married Olive Brooke, the daughter of Stopford Brooke. They had six children together.
During this time, Jacks' circle of associates included
George Bernard Shaw,
Sidney
Sidney may refer to:
People
* Sidney (surname), English surname
* Sidney (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Sidney (footballer, born 1972), full name Sidney da Silva Souza, Brazilian football defensive midfielder
* ...
and
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...
, and
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
.
[Richard Aldrich and Peter Gordon, ''Dictionary of British Educationists''. London: Woburn, 1989. (p. 129)] Jacks was appointed minister for the
Church of the Messiah, Birmingham in 1894.
Oxford
Jacks served as Principal of Manchester College, which was by then based in
Oxford, from 1915 until his retirement in 1931.
Jacks served as the editor of the ''
Hibbert Journal
''The Hibbert Journal'' was a large, quarterly magazine in softback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle: ''A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy''. In the early years it was publish ...
'' from its founding in 1902 until 1948. Under his editorship the ''Journal'' became one of the leading forums in England for work in philosophy and religion, and introduced the work of
Alfred Loisy to British readers.
In September 1915, he wrote in support of the war effort, citing the need to defeat German militarism and defend "the liberties of our race." His article, title
"The Peacefulness of Being at War"in ''
The New Republic'', argued that the war had "brought to England a peace of mind such as she had not possessed for decades," claiming that the sense of common purpose brought on by the war had overcome social fragmentation and improved English life. Jacks was interested in
parapsychology and was President for the
Society for Psychical Research (1917-1918).
After the war, Jacks wrote prolifically and gained popularity as a lecturer in Britain and America. He frequently returned to the theme of militarism and the "mechanical" mindset, which he regarded as one of the greatest threats in modern life. In his ''Revolt Against Mechanism'' (1933), he wrote that "The mechanical mind has a passion for control—of everything except itself. Beyond the control it has won over the forces of nature it would now win control over the forces of society of stating the problem and producing the solution, with social machinery to correspond."
He proposed
liberal education
A liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free (Latin: ''liber'') human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment ...
and world vision as a hope for salvation from the mechanistic world, in books such as his ''Education for the Whole Man'' (1931) and his 1938 BBC Radio Lectures.
In 1922 Jacks hosted Austrian philosopher, Dr
Rudolf Steiner, to present a conference at Manchester College on values in
education and to share the experiences of the model
Waldorf school at
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
. In his article "A Demilitarized League of Nations", ("Hibbert Journal", August 1936) Jacks argued the
League of Nations should completely eschew military force.
[Robert Seeley, ''The Handbook Of Non-Violence; including Aldous Huxley's An Encyclopedia Of Pacifism''. Westport, Conn.: L. Hill; Great Neck, N.Y.: Lakeville Press, 1986. (p. 52).]
Although he continued to preach Unitarianism, he became increasingly critical of all forms of institutional religion and denominationalism, and refused to let his name be added to a list of Unitarian ministers published by the
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches in 1928. He accepted an invitation to preach in
Liverpool Cathedral in 1933; a Convocation of the Church of England rebuked the cathedral for allowing a Unitarian to preach, igniting a controversy in the press.
Jacks published prolifically over a period of fifty years, including philosophical and visionary treatises, biographies, articles, and moral parables. He died in Oxford on 17 February 1955, at the age of 94.
Works
*''The Alchemy of Thought'' (1910)
*''Mad Shepherds and Other Human Studies'' (1910)
*''Among the Idolmakers'' (1911)
*''All Men Are Ghosts'' (1913)
*''From the Human End'' (1916)
*''Life and Letters of Stopford Brooke'' (1917)
*''The Legends of Smokeover'' (1921)
*''Realities and Shams'' (1924)
*''The Faith of a Worker'' (1925)
*''The Magic Formula and Other Stories'' (1927)
*''Constructive Citizenship'' (1927)
*''My Neighbour the Universe: A Study of Human Labour'' (1929)
*''The Inner Sentinel: A Study of Ourselves'' (1930)
*''Education for the Whole Man'' (1931)
*''Revolt Against Mechanism'' (1933)
*''Co-operation or Coercion?'' (1938)
*''The Last Legend of Smokeover'' (1939)
*''Near the Brink: Observations of a Nonagenarian'' (1952)
Articles
"The Universe as Philosopher,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. VI, October 1907/July 1908.
"The Alchemy of Thought,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. VI, October 1907/July 1908.
"A Psychologist Among the Saints,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. X, October 1911/July 1912.
"Democracy and Discipline,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XI, October 1912/ July 1913.
"Does Consciousness 'Evolve'?,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XI, October 1912/ July 1913.
"Mechanism, Diabolism and the War,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XIII, October 1914/July 1915.
"The Tyranny of Mere Things,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XIII, October 1914/July 1915.
"A Theological Holiday — and After,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XIV, October 1915/July 1916.
"An Interim Religion,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XIV, October 1915/July 1916.
"The Insane Root,"''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. CXIX, 1917.
"Punishment and Reconstruction,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XV, October 1916/July 1917.
"The Theory of Survival in the Light of its Context,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XV, October 1916/July 1917.
"The War-Made Empires and the Martial Races of the Western World,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XVI, 1917/1918.
"Loyalty Once More,"''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. CXXI, 1918.
"Arms and Men: A Study in Habit,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XVI, October 1918/July 1919.
"International Control of War Finance,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XVI, October 1918/July 1919.
"Why We Are Disappointed,"''The Hibbert Journal,'' Vol. XVIII, October 1919/July 1920.
"The International Mind,"''The Atlantic Monthly,'' Vol. 125, 1920.
''
The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 131, No. 2, February 1923.
References
Unitarian Universalist Biographical Dictionary: Lawrence Pearsall Jacks*
* L. P. Jacks
"The Peacefulness of Being at War."''The New Republic'' (11 September 1915), pp. 152–154.
External links
*
*
*
Essays by L. P. Jacks at Quotidiana.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacks, L. P.
1860 births
1955 deaths
20th-century Unitarian clergy
Alumni of University of London Worldwide
English philosophers
English Unitarians
Parapsychologists
People from Nottingham
Principals of Harris Manchester College, Oxford