Between the Creator and the Crucified - Understanding of Christian Faith through Anglo-Catholic Theologian, Austin Farrer -

Abstract

Austin Farrer was possibly the greatest Anglican mind of the twentieth century. Many Western scholars and preachers would agree with this statement, describing him as “the greatest Anglican thinker of his generation.” Susan Howatch, an editor of a collection lf Farrer’s lectures, tries to explain him as “a Prayer-Book Anglican in the Tractarian tradition” and “quintessential Anglican Catholic.” Actually, He led the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England in the mid-twentieth century. However, Austin Farrer is not still an well-known figure in Korean Christian scholars and preachers. If so, why do we, Korean Christians, give our interest on him? To study him gives some benefits. For a start, this research can explore what the Anglican spirituality is. In the course of wrestling with it, we can see another way to understand christian faith, even though our religious traditions are not much similar with the Church of England. More importantly, Farrer’s theological and practical understanding of faith helps our struggle examine the tension between faith and reason or spirituality and philosophy founded around Christian's lives. The most important contribution of Farrer is that he shows us how the unity of them can be established in his understanding of God. His notion of ‘double agency’ which is used to be expressed in ‘Jacob’s laddar’ is Farrer’s predominant contribution to Christian thought. Simply speaching, his ‘double agency’ means that human actions are fully our own but also are the work of God, though perfectly hidden. For him, an entire faith is balanced by a luminous philosophical wisdom. Farrer's image of Jacob's ladder for this two-way relationship between the finite and the Infinite helps us to travel in the unity of theology and spirituality.