Frederick Robert Tennant
| Frederick Robert Tennant | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Sept. 1st, 1866 Burslem, Staffordshire, England |
| Died |
Sept. 9th, 1957 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Theologian |
Frederick Robert Tennant (1866-1957) studied mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry at Caius College, Cambridge (1885–89) prior to becoming a theologian. After hearing the 1889 Huxley lectures, Tennant’s interest in religion grew in the 1890s ultimately leading him to prepare for ordination in the Church of England.[1] While he was ordained he taught science at Newcastle-under-Lyme High School (1891–94), and became a lecturer in Theology and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1913.[2]
As an Anglican theologian, Tennant assimilated much of Huxley’s lectures culminating in the 1901-1902 Hulsean Lecture entitled Origin and Propagation of Sin where he integrated evolutionary ideas into a Christian synthesis.[3]
One of Tennant's goals in his writings was an integrative synthesis of the doctrines of the fall and original sin with Huxley’s claims of conflict between Darwinian thought and Christianity.[4]
Evolution and purpose
Tennant believed that the existence of a god was needed to explain the purposive quality of evolution. Tennant was the first theist widely known to put forward such an argument. In volume 2 of his book Philosophical Theology he says.
the multitude of interwoven adaptations by which the world is constituted a theatre of life, intelligence, and morality, cannot reasonably be regarded as an outcome of mechanism, or of blind formative power, or aught but purposive intelligence[5]
Bibliography
- The Nature of Belief The Centenary Press (1918)
- Philosophical Theology, Vol. 1: The Soul & Its Faculties Cambridge University Press (1968) (originally 1928)
- Philosophical Theology, Volume 2 The University Press, 1968 (originally 1930)
- The origin and propagation of sin;: being the Hulsean Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge in 1901-1902 Cornell University Library (1 May 2009) (originally 1908)
- With Alan Tennant The Sources of the Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin (2012) RareBooksClub.com ISBN 978-1152479906
- The Concept of Sin (2012) General Books LLC ISBN 978-1151101518
References
- ↑ Mary Frances Thelen (1968) biography in Tennant F.R. (1903) The Sources of Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin (Schoken: New York); Delton L. Scudder (1940) Tennant’s Philosophical Theology (Yale University Press: New Haven; Humphrey Milford: London; Oxford University Press: Oxford). Also, see the website: http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/t/tennant_f_r.shtml
- ↑ "Frederick Robert Tennant". trinitycollegechapel.com.
- ↑ Frederick R. Tennant. 1906. The Origin and Propagation of Sin: Being the Hulsean lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge in 1901-2. 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge).
- ↑ Brannan, D.K. (2007) Darwinism and Original Sin: Frederick R. Tennant’s Integration of Darwinian Worldviews into Christian Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Science 1:187-217; Brannan, D.K. (2011) Darwinism and Original Sin: Frederick R. Tennant’s analysis of the Church Fathers’ understanding of Original Sin and an exegesis of St. Paul. Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Science 8:139-171.
- ↑ "Design Arguments for the Existence of God". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.