William Temple was one of the greatest Archbishops of Canterbury in modern times. He died on this day in 1944, but is renowned today as a historic church leader and a 'spiritual giant'.
Born in 1881, in Exeter, England, Temple grew up to become a philosopher and a statesman who supported social reforms and defending the working class. He was also a pioneer in the ecumenical movement.
Temple spoke up passionately in the House of Lords in 1943 against the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis, arguing for their protection to be made a priority and comparing Allied leaders to the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side of the road from the man who fell among thieves. He co-founded the Council of Christians and Jews in an effort to combat antisemitism in Britain; the organisation has endured to this day.
He was also a profound spiritual writer who saw deeply into the heart of the gospel and its implications for human life and social justice in an ever-changing world. A committed Anglican, he was the last Archbishop of Canterbury to die while in office. Here are nine quotes that capture some of his thought.
1. The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.
2. Remember that Christianity is not, first and foremost, a religion; it is first and foremost a revelation. It comes before us chiefly not with a declaration of feelings we are to cultivate, or thoughts we are to develop; it comes before us, first and foremost, with the announcement of what God is, as He is proved in what he has done.
3. The worst things that happen do not happen because a few people are monstrously wicked, but because most people are like us.
4. It is not easy to find outstanding opportunities for practising this great virtue of forgiveness. But there are plenty of little ones, and the little ones test us more searchingly because there is nothing heroic about them. It is always easier to do one big heroic thing than a thousand little, obscure things; and that is what it has to be with most of us.
5. Repentance does not merely mean giving up a bad habit. What it is concerned with is the mind: get a new mind. To repent is to adopt God's viewpoint in place of your own.
6. When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.
7. One who faces his own failures is steadily advancing on the pilgrim's way.
8. Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.
9. My worth is what I am worth to God; and that is a marvellous great deal, for Christ died for me. Thus, incidentally, what gives to each of us His highest worth gives the same worth to everyone; in all that matters most are we equal.
