William Temple

William Temple (15 October 1881 - 26 October 1944)

“Christian charity manifests itself in the temporal order as a supra-natural discernment of, and adhesion to, justice in relation to the equilibrium of power.”

—William Temple, writing in the Christian News-Letter of 29 December 1943, on ’What Christians Stand For in the Secular World’, quoted on page 536 of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, His Life and Letters, by F. A. Iremonger, (Oxford, 1948) in the chapter by Dorothy Emmet, “The Philosopher”.


Dry as dust, you would think, a biography read now of a mid-twentieth century Anglican divine and prelate. William Temple began as a junior teacher of philosophy at an Oxford college - well actually as a son of a bishop who became Archbishop of Canterbury - then sought holy orders, after seeking understanding of his own faith, became deacon, priest, bishop, and archbishop in due order. He was known in his time as a preeminent ecclesiastical thinker, able to lead his church, the established church in England, in war-time, and into new visions of ecumenical community and the pursuit of justice in relation to society. His belief was that the Christian held an ultimate allegiance not to any party or nation but to God. So that turns out to be very relevant today. We cannot abandon hope for a Christian activity in pursuit of justice, certainly not now, and we are compelled to seek a means for serving the ultimate end of our ultimate allegiance through the present catastrophe. The catastrophe I mean is that of the continued abandonment of right relations between peoples, and that means justice, exhibited by too many of our secular politicians. “If you want peace, work for justice”—Paul VI.