Hastings Rashdall (24 June 1858 – 9 February 1924) was an English philosopher,

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, historian, and

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest. He expounded a theory known as ideal utilitarianism, and he was a major historian of the universities of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. He argued for personal idealism and theistic finitism.

Biography

Born in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, on 24 June 1858, Rashdall was the son of an

priest. He was educated at Harrow and received a scholarship for New College, Oxford. After short tenures at St David's University College and

University College, Durham University College, informally known as Castle, is the oldest constituent college of Durham University in England. Centred on Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 by William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham. As a constituent ...

, Rashdall was made a Fellow of first

Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...

, then

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, and dedicates his main work, '' The Theory of Good and Evil'' (1907), to the memory of his teachers T. H. Green and

Henry Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (; 31 May 1838 – 28 August 1900) was an English Utilitarianism, utilitarian philosopher and economist and is best known in philosophy for his utilitarian treatise ''The Methods of Ethics''. His work in economics has also had a ...

. The dedication is appropriate, for the particular version of utilitarianism put forward by Rashdall owes elements to both Green and Sidgwick. Whereas he holds that the concepts of good and value are logically prior to that of right, he gives right a more than instrumental significance. His idea of good owes more to Green than to the hedonistic utilitarians. "The ideal of human life is not the mere juxtaposition of distinct goods, but a whole in which each good is made different by the presence of others." Rashdall has been eclipsed as a moral philosopher by G. E. Moore, who advocated similar views in his earlier work ''

Principia Ethica ''Principia Ethica'' is a book written in 1903 by British philosopher G. E. Moore. Moore questions a fundamental pillar of ethics, specifically what the definition of "good" is. He concludes that "good" is indefinable because any attempts to do ...

'' (1903). Rashdall was also a Berkeleyan and advocated his own variant of personal idealism.Sell, Alan P. F. (2012). ''The Philosophy of Religion 1875-1980''. Wipf & Stock Publishers. pp. 46-47. He rejected absolute idealism and criticized other philosophers who identified God with the absolute. He argued that there can be no matter without a perceiving mind and that God is an infinite mind, ground of all things and the supreme personality. He argued for an anthropomorphic God that is limited in power to explain the

problem of evil The problem of evil is the philosophical question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an Omnipotence, omnipotent, Omnibenevolence, omnibenevolent, and Omniscience, omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ...

. His historical study, ''The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages'', was described in the introduction to its recent reprinting as "one of the first comparative works on the subject" whose "scope and breadth has assured its place as a key work in intellectual history." His ''The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology'' surveyed different approaches to the Christian doctrine of

atonement Atonement, atoning, or making amends is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some othe ...

, concluding with an influential defence of the "subjective" theory of the atonement that Rashdall attributed to both

Peter Abelard Peter Abelard (12 February 1079 – 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, teacher, musician, composer, and poet. This source has a detailed description of his philosophical work. In philos ...

and

Peter Lombard Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096 – 21/22 August 1160) was an Italian scholasticism, scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of ''Sentences, Four Books of Sentences'' which became the s ...

. Rashdall argued that the "objective" view of the atonement associated with

Anselm of Canterbury Anselm of Canterbury OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also known as (, ) after his birthplace and () after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher, and theologian of the Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Canterb ...

was inadequate, and that the most authentically Christian doctrine was that Christ's life was a demonstration of God's love so profound that Christ was willing to die rather than compromise his character. This in turn inspires believers to emulate his character and his intimacy with the Father. Rashdall may have coined the phrase "equality of opportunity." Rashdall received the degree

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

(DL) from New College, Oxford, in October 1901. He was president of the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

from 1904 to 1907, a member of the Christian Social Union from its inception in 1890, and was an influential

modernist theologian of the time, being appointed to a canonry in 1909. He was Dean of Carlisle from 1917 to 1924, and died of cancer in

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

on 9 February 1924. He is buried in

Holywell Cemetery Holywell Cemetery lies behind St Cross Church, Oxford, St Cross Church in St Cross Road, Oxford, England, south of Holywell Manor on Manor Road, Oxford, Manor Road and north of Longwall Street, in the parish of Holywell, Oxford, Holywell. Histo ...

, Oxford.

Selected works

*
''Doctrine and Development: University Sermons''
(1898)
''New College''
(with Robert Rait, 1901)
''Christus in Ecclesia: Sermons on the Church and Its Institutions''
(1904)
''The Theory of Good and Evil''
(1907)
''Ethics''
(undated)
''Philosophy and Religion''
(1910)
''Is Conscience an Emotion? Three Lectures on Recent Ethical Theories''
(1914)
''Conscience and Christ: Six Lectures on Christian Ethics''
(1916)
''The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology''
(London: Macmillan, 1919)
''The Moral Argument for Personal Immortality''
in ''King's College Lectures on Immortality'' (1920)
''God and Man''
1930

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links