Frederick Denison Maurice

Here is that which may cheer those who have kept up, amidst infinite confusions, the dream of a God who makes Himself incarnate.

John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), often known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism.

Quotes

• Here indeed is a continuous book, because a book of Hope. Here is that which may cheer those who have kept up, amidst infinite confusions, the dream of a God who makes Himself incarnate, that he may be a deliverer, the dream of voluntary sacrifice, the dream of a glorious Avatar! The Book can set these dreams in order, can show how substantial they are, can remove the abominations with which they have been mingled, by telling from Whom they have proceeded, in Whom they are fulfilled.
  • Sermon on the second Sunday in Advent, 1857; Sermons: Second Series, vol. 1 (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1860), p. 34

Quotes about Maurice

• Maurice is equally opposed to the sacerdotalism which makes the essence of religion consist in a magical removal of penalties instead of a 'regeneration' of the nature. He takes what may be vaguely called the 'subjective' view of religion, and sympathises with Schleiermacher's statement that piety is 'neither a knowing nor a doing, but an inclination and determination of the feeling.'
  • Leslie Stephen, The English Utilitarians, vol 3: John Stuart Mill (1900)