John Wycliffe: Theologian or Philosopher?

Last week Tim Challies wrote a blog about a new book on the English poet John Donne. In this post, Challies mentions that he does not believe the author of the book fully comprehended Donne’s religious or theological beliefs. His conclusion is that the secular writer is more enthralled with the political and religious environment in which Donne lived than in Donne’s actual beliefs.

I believe this is also true in Wycliffe’s case. One of the most intriguing sources on Wycliffe that I have found is the short book by Sir Anthony Kenny simply titled Wyclif.

At the time of the book’s writing, Kenny held the position of Master of Balliol at Oxford University. This was the same position held by Wycliffe six-hundred years earlier. Kenny points out that many books have outlined John Wycliffe’s activities and chronological career, or focused solely on his theology, but no work has explored the relationship between the philosophy and theology of the early reformer.

As for his philosophical contributions, Wycliffe’s early works include such titles as On Logic, On Ideas, Continuation of the Treatise on Logic, On Universal Being, On Primary Being, On Categorical Being, On the Acts of Soul, Amending Errors about Universals, On the Intellection of God, On the Volition of God, Treatise on Universals, On Matter and Form, and Summa on Being. Kenny calls Wycliffe the Morning Star of the Reformation and the Evening Star of Medieval Scholasticism. Kenny argues that the philosophers and theologians who followed Wycliffe are usually estranged from the other as those who initially followed his philosophy rejected him because of his later heretical views in the eyes of the Catholic Church while the reformers who followed his later theological beliefs overlooked his earlier philosophy as part of a corrupt medieval, irrational system.

Kenny is an agnostic philosopher. He sees Wycliffe’s concept of God as the supreme principle of the universe from which everything necessarily flows. He traces Wycliffe’s belief in predestination, which was one of the foundational beliefs that led to Wycliffe’s rejection of the Roman Catholic Church, to the idea of philosophical necessity. Likewise, Kenny argues that Wycliffe’s later refutation of transubstantiation is because of Wycliffe’s earlier writings about the nature of being.

Wycliffe was a transitional figure during an erratic time in history. The initial changes that led to the Enlightenment were in full swing, and the ever troublesome relation between the church and state were as complex as ever. As in the case with the book about John Donne, I believe Kenny also confuses what Wycliffe believed about God and the Scriptures with what Wycliffe had to believe in order to hold his position.

Next we will further explore some of Wycliffe's beliefs, and see how even the social and political correctness of his day could not restrain Wycliffe's criticism of the Roman Catholic Church.

Following the animal theme... cute?

This was sooo cute charmingly masculine!

Baby Panda Sneeze