Maurice, Frederick Denison

(1805–72)

   Theologian, Philanthropist and Educator.

   Maurice was born in Suffolk, the son of a Unitarian minister. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, but was not awarded a degree because he refused to subscribe to the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles. Subsequently he did join the Church of England and, after a period at Oxford University, he was ordained into the Anglican ministry. In 1838 he published The Kingdom of God in which he argued that universal fellowship was only to be found in Jesus Christ. In 1848, stirred by the European revolutionary movements of the time, he formed the Christian Socialist movement with Charles kingsley and J.M.F. ludlow, strongly believing that Christianity stood for a structure of society in which people could co-operate rather than compete. He had been appointed Professor of Theology at King’s College, London, in 1846, but he was expelled from his post in 1853 after questioning the doctrine of eternal punishment. Later, in 1866, he became Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Besides his role as a Christian Socialist, Maurice is remembered as an educational innovator. He was closely involved both in the founding of Queen’s College, London, in 1848, which was the first place of higher education for women in England and in 1854, he started the Working Men’s College in London.

   W.M. Davies, An Introduction to F.D. Maurice’s Theology (1964);

   A.M. Ramsey, F.D. Maurice and the Conflict of Modern Theology (1951);

   A.R. Vidler, F.D. Maurice and Company (1966).