E. L. Mascall: The Unassuming Theologian

E. L. Mascall (1905–1993) is a hidden gem of twentieth-century British Anglican theology. By “hidden” I mean unfashionable: he did not seek prominence, avoided popularism and rhetorical sparkle in his writing, and—particularly in later assessments—failed to fit neatly into any prevailing theological narrative. He is remembered as neither a prophet, like Karl Barth, nor a storyteller, like C.S. Lewis. None of this, of course, counts against him—quite the opposite. Mascall was an unassuming champion of genuine, lively orthodoxy and a faithful custodian of a theological inheritance too often taken for granted by we who call ourselves Anglican. I want here to unpack this assertion by examining just two of Mascall’s basic contributions to theology and the Christian life.  

Firstly, Mascall was a defender of metaphysics. He insisted that Christian doctrine makes real ontological claims. Against the strong currents of logical positivism, existentialism and reductive versions of biblical theology, Mascall reaffirmed the importance of being, substance and causality as the foundations of sacred contemplation; of faithful, disciplined “thought about God”.

This may unsettle some readers. Is not Jesus Christ the foundation of all thought about God? Insofar as Christ is the agent of creation, the answer is “yes”. Yet theology also presupposes basic metaphysical commitments that are observable in nature and not themselves revealed. In this sense, philosophy remains foundational, undergirding thought about God and making theological reasoning possible in the first place. To use a biblical image, if Christ is the capstone, or the definitive content of theology, then metaphysics is its foundation. Philosophy and metaphysics cannot crown the structure, but do make clear and plausible the unity and uniqueness of divine revelation.

For Mascall, without metaphysics theology comes unstuck. For example, some theologians have tended to unwittingly present revelation as a mere transfer of information. Karl Barth describes revelation as a “pure absolute vertical miracle”. For Barth, this means revelation can have no grounding outside God’s direct address of humanity. There was in Barth’s time a kind of prophetic value to this commitment, and of course Mascall too affirms that revelation is borne of nothing other than God’s initiative. But he also asserts that human beings and the universe are caused and ordered by God, such that God and creatures exist in a participatory relationship rather than a mere dyad. The question becomes: does revelation happen to us as it were “out of the blue” (as in Barth), or is it a perfecting work of grace by a God who created us by nature to worship and be cleaved to him?

Secondly, Mascall was deeply concerned with how the Christian life should be practiced. Further, in reflecting on aspects of Christian living, he always retained a connection to the wider narrative of sacred contemplation. He would have been uncomfortable with attempts to tackle the Christian life in an atomised manner, as if it had to do with “topics” that could be treated as such. Prayer, for instance, is not a theme under “Christian living”, but a sacred practice best understood within the structure of theology, the nature of God and the architecture of the universe.

How then did Mascall understand prayer?  Along with Aquinas, he affirms the idea of dual causality, itself a constituent of metaphysics. This means that both God and humans have causal efficacy; not of the same kind, but in a non-competitive relation. My agency as a human being is founded in the capacity to act according to my nature, of which God is the cause: he continuously upholds all things by his sovereign ordering and sustaining. So when I act freely, I do not compromise God but rather open a window (albeit a mysterious one) to his gratuitous, freedom giving creativity in allowing me to be me.

In practice, this helps us to see prayer anew. When I pray, I do not make requests to an obscure benefactor. Nor do I simply parrot divine speech without any personal investment and influence over things. Instead I am praying with and to the living God. I commune with him and have a part in the unfurling of his will in the world. And because I thus participate in God’s life, his response to my often questionable prayers is sanctifying love. See how Mascall weaves metaphysics and theology to aid a richly informed understanding of the human experience of God.  

I hope this has served to sketch some of Mascall’s emphases and indicate his importance to theology and the Anglican imagination.  To conclude, Mascall undertakes much of the heavy lifting that allows Anglicanism to sustain a faithful metaphysical realism appropriate for contemporary theological debate. And he does so not only through significant engagement with Thomas Aquinas, but in conversation with a wide and rich variety of theological voices, from the sixteenth century mystic St John of the Cross to the contemporaneous pluralist philosopher John Hick. In this way, he also embodies the generous-spirited orthodoxy which demonstrates the best of Anglicanism.

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Nick lives with his wife and family in Stockport and attends Christ Church Stockport. He teaches Religion and Philosophy at Manchester Grammar School.