Archbishop Fisher, 1945-1961: Church, State and World

Abstract

Perhaps inevitably, Archbishop Geoffrey Francis Fisher's primacy has been overshadowed by a development that took place largely after his retirement: the religious crisis of the 1960s. In 1961 the mainstream press reported Fisher's resignation with enthusiastic praise for his achievements, but during the 1960s it became conventional to argue that Fisher incarnated a traditional form of ecclesiasticism that was intrinsically unsuited to the new “modernity” of postwar England. Neither of these conflicting views were simple historical assessments, but rather were bound up with partisan arguments about whether and how to modernize the Church of England. Yet subsequent ecclesiastical history on Fisher has often structured itself around tropes from this discussion; these include whether Fisher's style was too headmasterly, whether he lacked imagination, and whether Bishop George Bell of Chichester would have been a better choice. Andrew Chandler and David Hein are surely correct to argue that Fisher's “pivotal archiepiscopate” is “one that cries out for fresh examination” (p. 5).