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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
As a Catholic lay person Friedrich von Hügel developed a spirituality which sought to integrate scholarship, including the critical study of religion, with a full religious life, one which holds the institutional, the intellectual, and the mystical elements in a creative tension. He did this during and after the period known as “Roman Catholic Modernism,” a difficult time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church as it responded to perceived threats with severe restrictions. This essay explores how von Hiigel's spirituality was one of empowerment by considering him as advocate and networker, writer, and spiritual director. He not only developed a lay approach to spirituality but a spirituality of scholarship which can still inspire contemporary Christians.
1 For recent studies of the Modernist crisis and its aftermath see Appleby, R. Scott, Church and Age Unite! The Modernist Impulse in American Catholicism (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992);Google Scholar and Schultenover, David, A View from Rome on the Eve of the Modernist Crisis (New York: Fordham University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
2 von Hügel, Friedrich, “The Spiritual Writings of Father Grou,” The Tablet 74 (12 21, 1889): 991.Google Scholar
3 de la Bedoyère, Michael, The Life of Baron von Hügel (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1951), 124.Google Scholar
4 For von Hügel's involvement in critical biblical studies see Barmann, Lawrence F., Baron Friedrich von Hügel and the Modernist Crisis in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 18–53.Google Scholar
5 “Chronique,” Bulletin critique 6/2 (05 1885): 175–78;Google Scholar 7/6 (March 1886): 117-18; 7/7 (April 1886): 135; 7/24 (December 1886): 477-78; 12/6 (March 1891): 119-20; and 12/24 (December 1891):278-79.
6 Barmann, , Von Hügel, 79–137.Google Scholar
7 The following list of publications indicates von Hügel's, advocacy of Loisy: ”A Proposito dell'Abate Loisy,” Studi Religiosi 1 (07–08 1901): 348–50;Google Scholar“The Case of Abbé Loisy,” The Pilot 9 (01 9, 1904): 30–31;Google Scholar“The Case of M. Loisy,” The Pilot 9 (01 23, 1904): 94;Google Scholar“The Abbé Loisy and the Holy Office,” The Times (03 2, 1904): 15 (signed Romanus);Google Scholar“Introduction to letters by Bailey Saunders and Loisy,” The Times (04 30, 1904): 6;Google Scholar“Discussions: M. Loisy's Type of Catholicism,” The Hibbert Journal 3 (04 1905): 599–600;Google Scholar“The Abbé Loisy,” The Tablet 3 (03 7, 1908): 378–79;Google Scholar Review, Les Évangiles Synoptiques, The Hibbert Journal 6 (07 1908): 926–30;Google Scholar“L'Abate Loisy e il problema dei Vangeli Sinottici,” Il Rinnovamento 3 (01–06 1908): 209–34;Google Scholar 4 (July-December 1908): 1-44; and 5 (January-June 1909): 396-423 (signed H).
8 “L'Abbé Duchesne and Anglican Orders,” The Tablet 83 (06 2, 1894): 857–58.Google Scholar
9 C. L. Wood (Lord Halifax) to von Hügel, September 5, 1911; quoted by Kelly, James J., Baron Friedrich von Hügel's Philosophy of Religion (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1983), 69, note 59.Google Scholar
10 Kelly, , Von Hügel's Philosophy of Religion, 69–70.Google Scholar
11 Merry del Val to Vaughan, April 2, 1896, Westminster Archdiocesan Archives (WAA), Vaughan Papers 1/14, 3611.
12 “The Church and the Bible: The Two Stages of Their Inter-Relation,” Dublin Review 115 (10 1894): 313–41;Google Scholar 116 (April 1895): 306-37; and 117 (October 1895): 275-304.
13 “The Comma Johanneum,” The Tablet 89 (06 5, 1897): 896–97.Google Scholar
14 Barmann, , Von Hügel, 42.Google Scholar
15 Petre, Maude, Von Hügel and Tyrrell: The Story of a Friendship (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1937), 10.Google Scholar For studies of Tyrrell see Sagowsky, Nicholas, ‘On God's Side’: A Life of George Tyrrell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990);CrossRefGoogle ScholarLeonard, Ellen, George Tyrrell and the Catholic Tradition (New York: Paulist, 1982);Google Scholar and Schultenover, David, George Tyrrell: In Search of Catholicism (Shepherdstown, WV: Patmos Press, 1981).Google Scholar For a study of Petre see Leonard, Ellen, Unresting Transformation: The Theology and Spirituality of Maude Petre (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991).Google Scholar
16 The text was published in The Tablet 97 (01 5, 1901): 8–12.Google Scholar It was endorsed by Leo XIII whose letter of congratulations to the bishops was printed in The Tablet 97 (03 23, 1901): 441.Google Scholar
17 The Church and the Future was reprinted under Tyrrell's name with an introduction by Petre, M. D. (London: Priory, 1910).Google Scholar
18 “Official Authority and Living Religion,” Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion, Second Series (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1926), 3–23;Google Scholar hereafter EA 2. For details of how this essay evolved see Barmann, , Von Hügel, 158–60.Google Scholar
19 Diaries, August 26-29, 1907; quoted by Barmann, , Von Hügel, 195.Google Scholar Von Hügel's diaries (1877-1924) and other papers (VHP) are at St. Andrew's University Library (SAUL).
20 Von Hügel to Wilfrid Ward, June 5, 1908; quoted by Barmann, , Von Hügel, 215.Google Scholar
21 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, February 5, 1904, British Library (BL), Petre Papers (PP), Add. MS 44928; quoted in Petre, , Story of a Friendship, 143.Google Scholar
22 Tyrrell to von Hügel, June 22, 1908, BL, PP, Add. MS 44931.
23 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, June 23, 1908, BL, PP, Add. MS 44931.
24 von Hügel, Friedrich, The Mystical Element of Religion as Studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1908; 2nd ed., 1923);Google Scholar hereafter ME.
25 Holland, Bernard, Memoir in Selected Letters 1896-1924 (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), 32; hereafter SL.Google Scholar
26 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, December 18-20, 1901, PP, BL, Add. MS 44927; emphasis is von Hügel's; published in SL, 102-03.
27 Ibid.
28 ME 1, 30.
29 Ibid., xxi.
30 Ibid., xxxi.
31 Ibid., 248.
32 Ibid., 54.
33 For a contemporary analysis of how theology can be pursued as a scientific study see Murphy, Nancey C., Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990).Google Scholar Murphy draws on Roman Catholic Modernism as an example of the effect on theology of scientific reasoning replacing medieval epistemology. See esp. 88-129.
34 Tyrrell to von Hügel, April 8, 1908, PP, BL, Add. MS 44931.
35 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, April 16, 1908, PP, BL, Add. MS 44931; published in SL, 148-51; quotation from 148.
36 ME 2, 380.
37 Ibid., 383.
38 Ibid., 385-86.
39 Ibid., 371.
40 Ibid., 331.
41 Tyrrell, George, Review of The Mystical Element of Religion by Baron F. von Hügel, Hibbert Journal 7 (07 1909): 689.Google Scholar
42 von Hügel, Friedrich, Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion, First Series (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1921), xviii;Google Scholar hereafter EA 1.
43 Von Hügel to Wilfrid Ward, February 17, 1917, SAUL, Wilfrid Ward Papers, (WWP) MS vii; 143 (194); quoted in SL, 227.
44 Ibid.
45 Ward, Maisie, The Wilfrid Wards and the Transition: The Nineteenth Century (London: Sheed & Ward, 1934), 300.Google Scholar Maisie Ward was Wilfrid's daughter.
46 March 20, 1916, SAUL, WWP MS vii; 143 (197).
47 June 11, 1912, SAUL, VHP, MS 30994; published by Whelan, Joseph P., “The Parent as Spiritual Director: A Newly Published Letter of Friedrich von Hügel,” The Month n.s. 2 (1970): 86.Google Scholar
48 Underhill repeatedly expressed her gratitude to von Hügel in her published works. See “Baron Von Hügel as a Spiritual Teacher,” Mixed Pasture: Twelve Essays and Addresses (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries, 1933).Google Scholar
49 Material related to von Hügel's direction of Evelyn Underhill is in SAUL, VHP, MS 5552.
50 von Hügel, Friedrich, Letters from Baron Friedrich von Hügel to a Niece, ed., with an introduction by Greene, Gwendolen (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1928), 25;Google Scholar hereafter LTN.
51 Whelan, , “The Parent as Spiritual Director,” The Month n.s. 2 (1970): 52–57, 84–87;Google Scholar quotation from 53, emphasis is von Hügel's.
52 LTN, 3.
53 Von Hügel to Kemp Smith, December 31, 1921, The Letters of Baron Friedrich von Hügel and Professor Norman Kemp Smith, ed. Barmann, Lawrence F. (New York: Fordham University Press, 1981), 161–62;Google Scholar emphasis is von Hügel's.
54 See preface to EA 1, xiii, for von Hügel's underlying convictions regarding other religions and Christians not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
55 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, December 18, 1906, BL, PP. Add. MS 44929; published in SL, 136-37.
56 ME 1, xxv-xxvi.
57 Hügel, Von, “Father Tyrrell: Some Memories of the Last Twelve Years of His Life,” Hibbert Journal 8 (01 1910): 234.Google Scholar
58 ME 1, xxvii.
59 Ibid., 79.
60 Whelan, Joseph, “Friedrich von Hügel's Letters to Martin D'Arcy,” The Month 42 (1969): 23–36;Google Scholar quotation on 29.
61 Ibid., 31.
62 Von Hügel to Hildegard (1899), quoted by de la Bedoyère, , The Life of Baron von Hügel, 117–18.Google Scholar
63 “Institutional Christianity” or “The Church, Its Nature and Necessity,” EA 1, 266; address delivered in London to the Executive Committee of the British branches of the Christian Student Movement, October 1918.
64 Ibid., 267.
65 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, March 4, 1900; quoted in Petre, , Story of a Friendship, 123–28;Google Scholar quotation from 124.
66 Von Hügel to Tyrrell, December 4, 1902; quoted in Petre, , Story of a Friendship, 111–13;Google Scholar quotation from 113.
67 Hügel, Von, “Eudoxe Irenée Mignot,” The Contemporary Review 108 (05 1918): 520–21.Google Scholar
68 Nédoncelle, Maurice, Baron Friedrich von Hügel: A Study of His Life and Thought (London: Longmans, Green, 1937), 192.Google Scholar
