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History and Spiritual Formation: Baron Friedrich von Hügel's Spiritual Nurture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2023
Abstract
Baron Friedrich von Hügel (1852-1925) viewed history as the crux of institutional religion. He also believed that our response to God needs to include all three “Elements of Religion”: the “Intellectual Element” (rational and theological), “Mystical Element” (experiential and devotional) and “Institutional Element” (sacramental, community, tradition and history). Given the role of history in the Baron's “Institutional Element,” it is not surprising that history played a significant role in his spiritual nurture of five individuals. Prayerful reflection upon the historical Christ was central to Evelyn Underhill's conversion. Learning about secular history broadened Gwendolen Greene, enabling her to appreciate Christian mystical texts more fully. Biblical history helped in the formation of Henri Garceau. However, von Hügel's use of history in the spiritual formation of Juliet Mansel and his daughter, Gertrud, had mixed results, and is a reminder of the need to be attentive to both individual differences and maturity levels when using history for spiritual formation. This article builds upon prior research about von Hügel as a spiritual director through the inclusion of unpublished letters from several archives, plus focusing upon one area that has not been extensively discussed in previous studies: the role of history in the Baron's spiritual nurture.
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References
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17 Von Hügel, Mystical, vi.
18 Ibid.
19 Von Hügel, Mystical, viii.
20 Steere, Spiritual, 169.
21 Gwendolen Greene, Two Witnesses (London: Dutton, 1930), 144.
22 Edmund Gardener, ed., Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion. Second Series (London: Dent, 1921), 33–34.
23 Gardener, ed., Essays, 34.
24 Friedrich von Hügel, Eternal Life: A Study of Its Implications and Applications (Edinburgh, UK: T & T Clark, 1912), 342.
25 Bedoyère, Life, 165–166.
26 Friedrich Von Hügel, Essays and Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion, First Series (London: Dent, 1921), xvi.
27 Von Hügel, Essays 1, v.
28 For example, “The Historical Method and the Documents of the Hexateuch,” The Catholic University Bulletin, Washington, DC (April 4, 1898), 198–226 + 7 appendices); “John, Gospel of St.” The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. 15 (1911): 452–458.
29 Von Hügel, Eternal, 342.
30 Ibid., 390.
31 Ibid., 392–393, italics added.
32 Von Hügel, Eternal, 385.
33 Lawrence Barmann, “The Modernist as Mystic,” in Catholicism Contending in Modernity, ed. Darrell Jodock (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 237.
34 Von Hügel, Eternal, 368, italics added.
35 William L. Portier and C. J. T. Talar, “The Mystical Element in the Modernist Crisis,” in Modernists and Mystics, ed. C. J. T. Talar (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1990), xi, ix.
36 Christian Stoll, “The Modernist Interest in Mysticism. Friedrich von Hügel's Contribution to the Discourse on ‘Religious Experience’ around 1900,” The Downside Review 139, no. 2 (2021): 115, 105–121.
37 Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia, “Baron Friedrich von Hügel on the Mystical Element of Religion: Has the Baron a Message for Us Today?” in Mystical Theology and Contemporary Spiritual Practice, eds. Christopher C. H. Cook, Julienne McLean, and Peter Tyler (New York: Routledge, 2018), Ch. 1.
38 Lawrence Barmann, “Friedrich von Hügel as Modernist and as More than Modernist,” Catholic Historical Review 75, no. 2 (Apr. 1989): 211.
39 Barmann, “Modernist,” 221–223.
40 Leonard, Creative, 3–4, 157.
41 James J. Kelly, Baron Friedrich von Hügel's Philosophy of Religion (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 1983), 213.
42 Patrick J. Sherry, “Von Hügel's Retrospective View of Modernism,” Heythrop Journal 28, no. 2 (1987): 180.
43 Leonard, Creative, 17.
44 See SAUL, ms2897.
45 Jane Shaw, Pioneers of Modern Spirituality (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2018), 6.
46 James Houston, Joyful Exiles (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 64.
47 Leigh Eric Schmidt, “The Making of Modern ‘Mysticism,’” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71, no. 2 (June 2003), 275, 279.
48 Schmidt, “Making,” 290.
49 He assembled a reading list for a Vicar whose parish was “much infected by Spiritualism.” Barmann, The Letters, 143; Steere, Spiritual, 7.
50 Leonard, “Traditions,” 250.
51 Steere, Spiritual, 26.
52 Gardener, Essays, 65, 124.
53 Greene, ed., Letters, 72.
54 Holland, ed., Selected Letters of Baron Friedrich von Hügel 1896-1924 (London: Dent, 1927), 203.
55 Barmann, “Modernist,” 223.
56 Holland, Selected, 269.
57 “Friedrich von Hügel, “The Catholic Contribution to Religion,” The Student Movement 51: 51-53; Greene, ed., Letters, xv.
58 Greene, Letters, xv
59 See Wrigley-Carr, “The Mystical Theologian: The Influence of Abbé Henri Huvelin on Baron Friedrich von Hügel,” The Downside Review 131, no. 465 (2013): 184.
60 Friedrich von Hügel, “Fénelon's ‘Spiritual Letters,’” The Tablet 83. 2821 (2 June 1894): 858.
61 Gardner, Reality, 23.
62 Ibid, 22.
63 Harman Grisewood, One Thing at a Time (London: Hutchinson, 1968), 95-96.
64 Nicholas Lash, “Modernism, aggiornamento and the night battle,” in Bishops and Writers, ed. Adrian Hastings (Wheat Hampstead: Anthony Clarke, 1977), 67; Portier & Talar, “Mystical”, 5.
65 Leonard, Creative, 70.
66 Underhill, Mixed, 230.
67 The Baron's earlier involvement in Catholic Modernism has blindsided some commentators concerning the value of the Baron's spiritual direction. For example, Fenton describes it as “sinister”, “inept”, “undesirable”, “hopelessly faulty. . . strikingly ignorant”, capable of causing “serious spiritual harm” and “not. . . acceptable”. Fenton's reactive assessment was made before Vatican II when authors connected to Modernism, like the Baron, were somewhat “rehabilitated” Joseph C. Fenton, “Von Hügel and his Spiritual Direction,” The American Ecclesiastical Review 133 (1955): 113-114, 126; Joseph C Fenton. “Von Hügel and Ecclesiastical Authority,” The American Ecclesiastical Review 133 (1955): 37.
68 Charles Williams, ed., The Letters of Evelyn Underhill (London: Longman, Green & co, 1943), 196.
69 Dana Greene, Evelyn Underhill. Artist of the Infinite Life (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1991), 8.
70 The House of Retreat Pleshey Archive (hereafter cited as PA), Menzies Unpublished MS, XI, VIII, XI.
71 St Andrews University Library Special Collections, Letters from F von Hugel to Evelyn Underhill, ms5552 [hereafter SAUL]; D. Greene, Fragments from an Inner Life (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1993), 20.
72 Evelyn Underhill, Jacopone Da Todi, Poet and Mystic 1228–1306 (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1919).
73 Greene, Letters, 174.
74 Steere, Gleanings, 64.
75 Greene, Letters,174.
76 Ibid.
77 Greene, Fragments, 27.
78 Cropper, The Life of Evelyn Underhill (Woodstock, VT: Skylight Publishing, 2003), 75.
79 Gardener, Essays, 54.
80 Greene, Letters, xxxvi; Gardner, Essays, 121.
81 Underhill had sent von Hügel the book with the inscription: “To the Baron von Hügel this is offered with gratitude and deep respect by the writer.” HugB828.U7, Special Collections, St Andrews University (SAUL); Cropper, Life, 45, italics added.
82 Williams, Letters, 199.
83 Von Hügel's Diary, SAUL (hereafter cited as “D”) 10/12/1912; D:10/12/1912, Special Collections, St Andrews University.
84 Cropper, Life, 52, italics added.
85 Greene, Letters, 175. However, Menzies argues that Underhill did visit him on several occasions, given she was so relieved to find someone who understood her. PA, Menzies Unpublished ms, IX.21.
86 Cropper, Life, 99.
87 Ibid., 79–82.
88 Ibid., 95.
89 Ibid., 100.
90 Ibid., 85–86.
91 Ibid., 99–100; ms5552:39, SAUL.
92 ms5552/1, SAUL.
93 Ibid. Von Hügel similarly said it “will ever give us a religion sufficiently lowly, homely, humbling.” ms5552/1, SAUL, 5/11/1921; Greene, Letters, 174.
94 Cropper, Life, 74.
95 Ibid., 81.
96 Ibid., 86.
97 Ibid., 95.
98 ms5552, SAUL, 42–43.
99 Williams, Letters, 26.
100 Ibid.
101 Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions (Oxford, UK: Blackwell's, 2002), xii.
102 Ms5552.37, SAUL.
103 Cropper, Life, 97.
104 Ms5552.53, SAUL.
105 Greene, Letters, x.
106 PA, Unpublished Menzies MS, IV.21.
107 Underhill, Mixed, 225.
108 Evelyn Underhill, “The Essence of von Hügel,” The Spectator 141 (Dec. 1928): 823.
109 Gwendolen Greene, Mount Zion (London: Dent & Sons, 1929), xi–x.
110 Evelyn Waugh, A Little Learning (London: Chapman & Hall, 1964), 219.
111 Gwendolen Greene, Two Witnesses (London: Dutton, 1930), 93–94.
112 Greene, Letters, xiv.
113 Ibid., 137.
114 Ibid., xi.
115 Simon Tugwell O.P. and Dom Aidan Bellener, eds., Letters of Bede Jarrett (Bath, UK: Downside Abbey & Blackfriars Publications, 1989), 103–104, 110. Father Jarrett was Greene's spiritual director from 1926 until his death in 1934.
116 The readings included, Boissier's Histoire du Paganisme; Juvenal, The Letters of the Younger Pliny; books by Caesar, Cicero, Lucretius, Virgil, Tacitus, Horace, Livy, and Pliny; Wiseman's Fabiol; Allard's Persecutions; and Prudentius's Cathemerinon. They also read Greek books: Bury's History of Greece, Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Thucydides, Gilbert, Murray, Croiset, Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiod, Minucius, Felix (Octavius), Socrates, Plato (Phaedo, The Republic, Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato), Thucydides (The Sicilian Expedition); Speeches, Minucius Felix, Pindar, Whitley (Companion to Greek Studies), Aristotle, and Plotinus.
117 Greene, Letters, 37.
118 Ibid., 15.
119 Ibid., 138.
120 Ibid., 38.
121 Ibid.,, 80.
122 Ibid., 20–21.
123 Ibid., 41.
124 Ibid., 15.
125 For example, Tertullian and Augustine's Confessions. He also wanted Greene to read about the church within the Roman Empire; the church's triumph over Paganism and Gnosticism; and about hermits, monks, and the largest minds among Roman Empire Christians. Christian writings included Faber, Spiritual Conferences; Jerome, The Fathers in the Desert; Father Walker, The Psychology of the Spiritual Exercises; Cure d'Ars, Life of the Cure; Aquinas, Ethicus; Wicksteed, The Reactions, St. Thomas Aquinas; St Thomas, God and His Creatures; Dante, Paradiso; Elizabeth Leseur's Journal; Bernard, Canticle of Canticles.
126 Greene, Letters, 61.
127 Ibid.
128 Greene, Two, 95.
129 Harman Grisewood, One, 95–96.
130 Greene, Letters, 134.
131 Ibid., 22–23.
132 Ibid., 23.
133 Ibid.
134 Greene, Letters, 22.
135 Ibid.
136 Ibid., xliii.
137 Ibid., 26.
138 Graduate Theological Union Special Collections: 92-7-01: 16/10/1924; Greene, ed., Fragments, 27.
139 See Margaret Guenther, Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction (Lanham, MD: Cowley Publications, 1992), 13.
140 Cock described von Hügel's deafness as “a severe and painful barrier to sustained social discourse.” Albert Cock, A Critical Examination of von Hügel's Philosophy of Religion (London: High Rees, 1952), 2.
141 Maude Petre, von Hügel and Tyrrell (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1937), viii.
142 Greene, Letters, 189, 88, 75.
143 Edouard Garceau, The Little Doustes (London: Frederick Muller, 1935), 281.
144 Bedoyère, Life, 259.
145 Von Hügel nurtured other teenage boys including Leo Ward plus Charlie Temple, who he loved as his “own son.” ms37194/51a, SAUL, 8/7/1921.
146 Juliet Mansel had singing lessons with Garceau's aunt (D:8/2/1914), and Hildegard von Hügel received piano lessons from Garceau's mother (Garceau, Little, 279).
147 D:4/6/1915; D:1/10/1915.
148 Holland, ed., Selected, 236.
149 For example, they discussed “questions of Catechisme an Diocese de Paris with Shakespeare's 7 Ages of Man.” He covered the following topics: “Nature and supernature”; “grace, sanctifying and actual”; “Actual grace”; “questions on Prayer”; “the ‘Our Father’”; “Baptism”; “Holy Eucharist”; “Real Presence”; “the Mass”; “Mass Vestments”; “Commandments of God”; “Theological Virtues”; “Faith”; “Hope”; “Charity”; “Commandments of Church”; “Confession”; “Cain and Abel”; “the Feast of all Saints”; “Samuel anoints David”; “David and Abigail”; “Holy Trinity, the Angels, Man, the Fall”; “mortification and suffering”; “O.T. Questions”; “joy, suffering”; “Annunciation, Visitation”; and “preparation for Confirmation.” At Madam Garceau's request, von Hügel “dwelt explicitly upon sex life appearing in the [Bible] stories.”
150 D:25/12/18; Garceau, Little, 281. von Hügel wrote to the Headmaster about Garceau receiving extra exam tuition and joining the Officer Cadet Corps. (D:2/3/19; D:21/12/18; D:8/3/19). Von Hügel wrote Catechism questions (D:13/6/19), and Old Testament and Greek exams for Garceau, posting them to him while on his summer holiday (D:20/6/19, D:30/7/19).
151 D:17/4/1916; D:30/6/1916.
152 Garceau, Little, 283–284.
153 D:8/5/1918.
154 D:30/10/1922.
155 Garceau, Little, 284.
156 Ibid., 285.
157 D:9/10/1923. Garceau gave von Hügel simple gifts like a chicken (D:20/1/1922) and a pot of Devonshire cream (D:4/5/1921). Von Hügel often gave Garceau a pound for Church going (D:6/4/1921).
158 D:31/5/1924;21/6/1924;3/10/1924. Von Hügel also taught Gilbert Garceau, and also organized his first communion and confession (D:25/12/1920).
159 D:26/12/15;14/12/17.
160 Garceau, Little, 300.
161 Von Hügel's nurture of Mansel was only second in quantity to that of Greene.
162 ms37194/18a, SAUL, 4/10/1910.
163 D:24/4/1909. Mansel attended Wycombe Abbey from September 22, 1909–December 20, 1910 (Email communication, Tina Cunningham, Archivist, Wycombe Abbey 24/2/2011). Juliet Mansel, “A Letter from Baron von Hügel,” The Dublin Review 222, no. 452 (July 1951): 1.
164 Mansel, “Letter,” 1.
165 Ibid., 2.
166 Ibid.
167 D:2/6/10. We see the high priority von Hügel placed on Mansel when he put off meeting with Crespi to read Browning with her (D:17/4/1910).
168 D:19/12/1909.
169 ms37194/18a, SAUL, 4/10/1910.
170 Paper 1-ms37194/11, SAUL, 4/4/1910; Paper 2-ms37194/12, SAUL, 7/7/1910; Paper 3-ms37194/15, SAUL, 20/8/1910; Paper 4-ms37194/23, SAUL, 20/4/1911; Paper 5-ms37194/23, SAUL, 20/4/1911&15/2/1912.
171 ms37194/23, SAUL (15/2/1912).
172 ms37194/23b, SAUL (9/5/1911).
173 ms37194/20:1, SAUL (19/10/1910).
174 Ibid.
175 ms37194/20/1, SAUL (19/10/1910).
176 ms37194, SAUL (23/6/1910).
177 D:3/4/1912. D:24/3/1912; D:25/3/1912; D:6&10/4/1912.
178 D:22/3/1911; D:22/3/1911; D:23/2/1922; D:18/3/1914.
179 D:3/4/1912. Von Hügel knew that “Adeline [was] very full of a profession for Juliet.” D:17/5/1914.
180 ms37194/22a, SAUL, 23/12/1910; ms37194/30a, SAUL, 3/4/1912.
181 D:19/5/1912; D:20/5/1912; D:21/5/1912.
182 D:23/2/1919; D:2/4/1919.
183 D:18/8/1919; D:6/9/1919; D:7/9/1919. In 1920, Mansel went to Clonboy and von Hügel read with her until Greene arrived, then he shifted his attention from Mansel (14-17/7/1920). In 1922, Mansel went on holiday with von Hügel (D:8/8/1922).
184 D:9/12/1920.
185 D:28/6/1922.
186 D:15/7/1924.
187 D:5/5/1921.
188 Georgetown University Archival Resources, Tom Burns’ Papers, GMT-110610, Unpublished postcard to Gwen Greene, 8/1/1921; D:10/1/1921.
189 msIX1272, Downside Abbey Archive (hereafter cited as DAA), 28/12/1920, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/a/A13530200.
190 Holland, ed., Selected, 321–323.
191 Ibid., 322.
192 Ibid., 321–323.
193 Ibid.
194 Holland, ed., Selected, 323.
195 Ibid.
196 Ibid.
197 D:6/1/1921.
198 D:4/11/1921.
199 D:7/1/1922.
200 ms37194/29a, SAUL.
201 Mansel, “Letter,” 2–3.
202 Ibid., 2.
203 D:1/11/22. The volumes in SAUL have a cross through the inscription: “Juliet Mansel, on the twenty-first birthday from her fatherly old Friend, Friedrich von Hügel.”
204 D:11/2/10.
205 ms37194/50a, SAUL.
206 ms37194/29b/c, SAUL; ms37194/256a, SAUL. An additional letter similarly has crosses across several pages in the light-blue pencil plus a line through the words “Sweet” and “My Sweet.” ms37194/6a/b, SAUL.
207 ms37194/17a, SAUL, 28/9/1910; ms27194/18a, SAUL, 4/10/1910.
208 Kelly, Baron, 211.
209 Email communication with James Kelly, January 17, 2011.
210 J. W. Beatie, “The Sense of the Infinite in the Philosophy of Religion of Friedrich von Hügel” (PhD diss., Universitié Catholoique de Louvain, 1969), 39–40.
211 Bedoyère, Life, 280.
212 Holland, Selected, 225, italics added.
213 Gertrud von Hügel, Saint Bernadine of Siena (London: Dent & Co, 1906); ms37194/36, SAUL.
214 Holland, ed., Selected, 225; Bedoyère, Life, 288; ms38776/2/7, SAUL
215 ms38776/8, SAUL, 10/4/1911.
216 Petre, Von Hügel, 21.
217 ms37194/37a, SAUL.
218 msIX1272, DAA, 6/1/1898.
219 Ibid.
220 Ibid.
221 Holland, Selected, 251.
222 Greene, Letters, 122.
223 Ibid., 177.
224 Greene, Letters, 123; msIX1272, DAA, 6/1/98.
225 msIX1272, DAA, 6/1/98.
226 Petre, Von Hügel, 21.
227 ms37194/37a, SAUL, 23/8/1915.
228 Holland, Selected, 222.
229 Greene, Letters, 78.
230 Holland, Selected, 201.
231 Greene, Letters, 78.
232 von Hügel, Eternal, 375; Holland, Selected, 143.
233 Greene, Letters, 179.
234 Ibid., 179, 183.
235 Underhill, Mixed, 230.