W.R. Inge
William Ralph Inge (June 6, 1860 – February 26, 1954) was an English preacher, Anglican priest, and scholar whose intellectual ministry as Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and prolific writings earned him the nickname “The Gloomy Dean.” Born in Crayke, Yorkshire, to Rev. William Inge, a curate and later Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and Susanna Churton, daughter of an archdeacon, he grew up in a staunchly high-church family. Educated at Eton College as a King’s Scholar, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1879, Inge excelled at King’s College, Cambridge, earning first-class honors in the Classical Tripos. Ordained a deacon in 1888 after teaching at Eton (1884–1888), he married Mary Catharine Spooner in 1905, finding personal stability in middle age that eased his earlier melancholy. Inge’s preaching career blended academic rigor with pastoral influence. After serving as a tutor at Hertford College, Oxford (1888–1904), he became vicar of All Saints, Knightsbridge (1905–1907), then Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge (1907–1911). Appointed Dean of St. Paul’s in 1911 by Prime Minister Asquith, he served until 1934, drawing large congregations with sermons that fused Christian mysticism and neoplatonic philosophy—most notably in The Philosophy of Plotinus (1918), his Gifford Lectures. His Outspoken Essays (1919, 1922) and Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1926, 1931), alongside a long Evening Standard column (1921–1946), showcased his sharp critiques of Roman Catholicism, social welfare, and naive progressivism, earning three Nobel Prize in Literature nominations. A proponent of experiential faith over institutional authority, he opposed dogma while defending reason in religion.
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W.R. Inge delves into the ineffable nature of God, emphasizing that human language and understanding fall short in describing His essence. Inge challenges conventional notions by stating that God transcends qualities like goodness and wisdom, asserting that He is beyond the concepts of good, better, and best. He echoes St. Augustine's wisdom that silence is the best approach when discussing God, as human words often lead to falsehood and sin when describing the divine. Inge also presents a unique perspective by portraying God not only as a Father but also as a Mother to all creation, sustaining and nurturing His creatures to prevent them from falling back into nothingness.
God
GOD is nameless, for no man can either say or understand aught about Him. If I say, God is good, it is not true; nay more; I am good, God is not good. I may even say, I am better than God; for whatever is good, may become better, and whatever may become better, may become best. Now God is not good, for He cannot become better. And if He cannot become better, He cannot become best, for these three things, good, better, and best, are far from God, since He is above all. If I also say, God is wise, it is not true; I am wiser than He. If I also say, God is a Being, it is not true; He is transcendent Being and superessential Nothingness. Concerning this St Augustine says: the best thing that man can say about God is to be able to be silent about Him, from the wisdom of his inner judgement. Therefore be silent and prate not about God, for whenever thou dost prate about God, thou liest, and committest sin. If thou wilt be without sin, prate not about God. Thou canst understand nought about God, for He is above all understanding. A master saith: If I had a God whom I could understand, I would never hold Him to be God. (318)[37] God is not only a Father of all good things, as being their First Cause and Creator, but He is also their Mother, since He remains with the creatures which have from Him their being and existence, and maintains them continually in their being. If God did not abide with and in the creatures, they must necessarily have fallen back, so soon as they were created, into the nothingness out of which they were created. (610)
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William Ralph Inge (June 6, 1860 – February 26, 1954) was an English preacher, Anglican priest, and scholar whose intellectual ministry as Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and prolific writings earned him the nickname “The Gloomy Dean.” Born in Crayke, Yorkshire, to Rev. William Inge, a curate and later Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and Susanna Churton, daughter of an archdeacon, he grew up in a staunchly high-church family. Educated at Eton College as a King’s Scholar, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1879, Inge excelled at King’s College, Cambridge, earning first-class honors in the Classical Tripos. Ordained a deacon in 1888 after teaching at Eton (1884–1888), he married Mary Catharine Spooner in 1905, finding personal stability in middle age that eased his earlier melancholy. Inge’s preaching career blended academic rigor with pastoral influence. After serving as a tutor at Hertford College, Oxford (1888–1904), he became vicar of All Saints, Knightsbridge (1905–1907), then Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge (1907–1911). Appointed Dean of St. Paul’s in 1911 by Prime Minister Asquith, he served until 1934, drawing large congregations with sermons that fused Christian mysticism and neoplatonic philosophy—most notably in The Philosophy of Plotinus (1918), his Gifford Lectures. His Outspoken Essays (1919, 1922) and Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1926, 1931), alongside a long Evening Standard column (1921–1946), showcased his sharp critiques of Roman Catholicism, social welfare, and naive progressivism, earning three Nobel Prize in Literature nominations. A proponent of experiential faith over institutional authority, he opposed dogma while defending reason in religion.