C. S. Lewis, the Inklings, & Others: Introducing Austin Farrer

A Faith of Our Own by Austin Farrer
Saving Belief by Austin Farrer
The Triple Victory by Austin Farrer

Theologian, philosopher, and Anglican priest, Austin Farrer (1904-1968) was not a member of the Inklings, but he was a close friend of C.S. Lewis. Lewis dedicated his Reflections on the Psalms to Farrer and Farrer took the last sacraments to Lewis before his death. Farrer’s friends also included J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers.

Born the son of a Baptist minister, Farrer converted to Anglicanism during his undergraduate years at Oxford. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1928, served a parish briefly, and returned to Oxford in 1931, teaching both theology and philosophy, and holding three eminent positions there until his unexpected death in 1968.

Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, has described Austin Farrer as “possibly the greatest Anglican mind of the twentieth century.” His first book, Finite and Infinite (1943), is considered one of the most difficult but brilliant works in English philosophical theology. Of his Bampton Lectures, published as The Glass of Vision (1948), Basil Mitchell wrote “surely St. Mary’s had seen and heard nothing like it since John Henry Newman occupied that pulpit.”

Farrer was also known as a highly imaginative but maverick interpreter of Holy Scripture. His numerous biblical studies tended to take a literary or typological approach. His article ‘On dispensing with Q’ caused much controversy, but might not do so today. And interestingly, his only book currently in print, recently republished by Wifp & Stock, is his commentary on Revelation.

For those who, like this reviewer, find Farrer’s theological works more than daunting, Farrer left distillations of his profound thought and enormous scholarship in a few devotional works, in some popular apologetics, and in undoubtedly his greatest legacy - his sermons. Farrer was considered a great preacher and was much in demand in the 50s and 60s. His sermons usually begin with some commonplace trickle of human experience and then inexorably flow into the depths of some aspect of orthodox Christian doctrine, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the image of God in men and women, or God’s interaction with His creation.

Inklings Bookshop has acquired good used copies (no markings, minor shelf wear) of three of Farrer’s books.

A Faith of Our Own (1960) is a collection of thirty of Farrer’s sermons with an introduction by C.S. Lewis. As an evangelical, I sometimes must disagree vigorously with Farrer but I still can concur with one contemporary review: “He plumbs the depths and climbs the heights of true religion with an ease that leaves the reader almost breathless with astonishment.”

Based on lectures given to undergraduates, Saving Belief (1964) is described by Susan Howatch in her introduction as “Farrer’s one systematic treatise on theology and provides a brief but luminous statement of his Trinitarian belief and Catholic faith.”